Aspire 1.0 Released!

[ma...@unifiq.com]

We've just released the first official version of Aspire, available at
http://www.unifiq.com

Thanks again to everyone who has helped in testing out the preview and
beta releases... this release couldn't have happened without you!

Mark

[vand...@gmail.com]

I was just checking out the demo which looks interesting and I'd
consider purchasing, but unfortunately I've noticed a few things that
concern me:
1) When you click on a goal and then create a new obstacle, it
actually creates a new goal. Subsequent obstacles are then all created
as goals.
2) The goal focus state appears to use a simple boolean value that
doesn't reset when clicking on a different goal. This state should be
reset when clicking on a different goal, or my choice would to have
the focus zoom in on the new goal that was clicked.
3) The boxes (goals, obstacles, solutions) should be resizeable to
accomodate longer text. For instance, the word wrapping on
Embarassment under the Exercise goal cuts off before the ent without a
dash to indicate wrapping. Changing "Exercise" to "Exercise at least
five times a week or more" overflows the area of the goal box. If
you're using bit-mapped graphics, start with a very large source image
and scale up or down as needed. Otherwise using vector graphics would
easily allow smooth scaling to almost any size container.
4) There's no way to create sub or related goals. For instance, I'd
like to create an Improve Health goal with three sub-goals: Exercise,
Eat better, Regular checkups. Or allow people to link or establish
relationships between goals.
5) Since the notes support rich text, it'd be nice if bulleted lists
and alignment were also supported

Thanks and keep up the good work!
Steve

On Feb 17, 8:23 am, m...@unifiq.com wrote:
> We've just released the first official version of Aspire, available athttp://www.unifiq.com

[Mark Roseman]

Hi Steve, thanks for checking out Aspire!

> 1) When you click on a goal and then create a new obstacle, it
> actually creates a new goal. Subsequent obstacles are then all created
> as goals.

I haven't seen this case where you try to create a new obstacle and it
creates a goal... would you be able to provide step-by-step directions
on how to do that?

> 2) The goal focus state appears to use a simple boolean value that
> doesn't reset when clicking on a different goal. This state should be
> reset when clicking on a different goal, or my choice would to have
> the focus zoom in on the new goal that was clicked.

If you do actually want to change the focus, double-click on another
item to do that.

> 3) The boxes (goals, obstacles, solutions) should be resizeable to
> accomodate longer text.

I definitely agree that it should handle truncating or word wrapping
better than it does. Allowing items to be resized though would upset
the "size equates with importance" balance, so on that front I'm far
more hesitant.

> 4) There's no way to create sub or related goals.

Sub-goals were deliberately left out at this point, but it's something
that I'd like to consider for future versions... the question of
course being how to fit that in nicely to the layout scheme. Being
able to relate items I see as more easily achievable, using color/
shape or something else to effectively "tag" items.

> 5) Since the notes support rich text, it'd be nice if bulleted lists
> and alignment were also supported

Will definitely look into these.

> Thanks and keep up the good work!

Thank you for all your comments and suggestions!

Mark

[vand...@gmail.com]

On Feb 18, 11:12 am, Mark Roseman <m...@unifiq.com> wrote:
> Hi Steve, thanks for checking out Aspire!
>
> > 1) When you click on a goal and then create a new obstacle, it
> > actually creates a new goal. Subsequent obstacles are then all created
> > as goals.
>
> I haven't seen this case where you try to create a new obstacle and it  
> creates a goal... would you be able to provide step-by-step directions  
> on how to do that?
>

This behavior happened when I had focused in on a goal and have the
goal clicked.

> > 2) The goal focus state appears to use a simple boolean value that
> > doesn't reset when clicking on a different goal. This state should be
> > reset when clicking on a different goal, or my choice would to have
> > the focus zoom in on the new goal that was clicked.
>
> If you do actually want to change the focus, double-click on another  
> item to do that.
>

From a GUI standpoint, double clicking a new goal isn't the most
intuitive as double clicking is typically used to edit/rename an
object. The focus state should zoom out if another goal is selected or
zoom in on that goal. I found it confusing that I had selected another
goal and the zoom state was focused, but it was displaying as not
focused. I had to hit the Zoom Out button to focus in on the new goal.
Once again, standard UI design.

> > 3) The boxes (goals, obstacles, solutions) should be resizeable to
> > accomodate longer text.
>
> I definitely agree that it should handle truncating or word wrapping  
> better than it does.  Allowing items to be resized though would upset  
> the "size equates with importance" balance, so on that front I'm far  
> more hesitant.
>

Another possiblity to truncate the after X number of characters
followed by and ellipse, hovering over the ellipse or goal would show
the complete text in a popup. Alternatively, you could increase the
size of the container and then automatically resize the remaining
containers to match.

> > 4) There's no way to create sub or related goals.
>
> Sub-goals were deliberately left out at this point, but it's something  
> that I'd like to consider for future versions... the question of  
> course being how to fit that in nicely to the layout scheme.  Being  
> able to relate items I see as more easily achievable, using color/
> shape or something else to effectively "tag" items.
>

Children or sub-goals could use a different container graphic to
differentiate them from the main goal and you wouldn't be able to
focus in on sub-goals. Alternately a tag system would also work where
you could filter out any goals that don't match the active tag.