Several iPhone to do apps compared
So I’m a big fan of to-do lists – enough to put “research and review to-do lists” on my to-do list. I was looking for one for the iphone, so I read some reviews and spent some time using each. Here is my take on the following free iphone apps from an interaction and usability point of view.
Bottom line? Jott wins on features, Zenbe wins with their easier to use interface.
I’m still using both for now to see which one wins after extended use.
Jott
http://jott.com
So this app is more for note taking, but also operates nicely
as a to-do list. What makes Jott different is that it has a voice
recorder, which records locally, then uploads to the online service for
transcription. The transcription then appears in your list as text,
and can also be played back as audio. I really like the speed and
convenience of entering things while walking down the street. The paid
version of Jott will create calendar entries and send emails.
- voice recording and transcription
- automatic syncing
- good online app, web version, and mini desktop app available (Adobe Air framework)
- customizable bottom icon set for quick access to lists (limit 4 visible at once)
- sorted by date entered, or a simple “priority!” flag, no other options.
- can move items from list to list on both iphone and web
- sharing with others, and integration with 3rd party email and calendar programs (paid upgrade)
Issues:
- Since this is a slightly different animal, it is somewhat unfair to
compare the features to dedicated to-do lists, but I will anyway since
that’s how I use it. I miss the ability to reorder things.
- This is more of a bug, but recorded items will randomly stay in the pending state only on the phone, but appear transcribed online (using
2G iphone firmware 2.1).
- The web version is feature rich, but a little clunky when editing or moving items.
- On the iphone, you mark items complete by very deliberately swiping your finger, which animates a strikethrough of the text. I found this hard to do while walking down the street, the slight angle of my swipe would scroll the page instead. A simple checkbox is easier to use.
- Completed items stay in their original order, adding visual noise when scanning the list. You can ‘clean up’ all items at once or delete each one individually, but this becomes repetitive. The web version allows sorting by ‘done’ all at once.
Zenbe Lists
http://lists.zenbe.com/
Zenbe is an email aggregator, but also has a nice, free simple iphone to-do list app. The to-do application is really elegant to use and the web version is the best I’ve used so far. It also supports sharing with others. That is a feature I have not tested.
- auto sync on launch with manual sync button
- drag n’ drop reordering within lists on the iphone and across all lists on the web version
- sharing lists with others
- due dates
Issues
- You can only move items from list to list on the web version. I’ve found myself accidentally entering a bunch of items in the wrong list and then unable to put them into the right place until I got to the computer.
EasyTask
http://www.easytaskmanager.net/
Summary:
- Getting Things Done format, with project and context views
- nice dashboard with today’s tasks, next 7 days, etc.
- online sync (manual), but the web version seems mainly for viewing, not task entry
- saves completed items, but does not support reuse or undo if accidentally marked complete
- Tasks ordered by date, no other sort options
- can move items from list to list on phone only
Issues:
- When you drill into a project and add a new task, the form is blank, forcing you to re-select the project instead of defaulting to the one you just selected.
- Being GTD oriented, it helps if you follow a strict David Allen methodology. Although I like the ‘tagging’ aspect of GTD theory, I am not so strict with my categorization and date sequencing, so I find the extra steps of selecting a project, context, and due date, a bit more cumbersome. This app is most useful if you enter due dates for everything, a step I often disregard for items that are dependent upon previous steps.
- When entering tasks, there is an enter key on the keypad which is useless since it doesn’t support multiple lines of text. It’d be nice if that enter key said ’save’ or ‘done’.
DoBot
http://dobot.us/
- Nice and simple.
- Supports, dates, priority, and big notes
- Sorting options
- Ability to hide old task for later reuse (essential for grocery lists)
Issues:
There is an interaction disconnect here – the ‘done’ trigger button should always be in the same location, however it is in the upper right for entering notes, dates, priority, and saving the whole task, but is
inexplicably in the bottom right of the keypad when you are entering the task title. It requires 2 steps – on opposite sides of the screen. I still find myself constantly tapping the blue, but slightly grey-out ’save’button several times before correctly typing ‘done’.
FYI, I sent an email letting them know about this and they responded saying this would be addressed in the next version.
To Do
from AustinBull Software – Demo: http://www.austinbull.com/
Thank you for the demo. You just saved me money. I have not used this app, but from the demo, it looks like an interaction nightmare. This app does not follow any of the typical iphone conventions or style, nor simple Fitt’s Law proximity heuristics. It isn’t internally consistent either; click the title text (?) to save in one place and a button in a different place… And it assumes you will always want to add notes to a task, adding the extra step. Yikes.
And at the time of this post, Toodledo, Nozbe, and Remember The Milk only had a web app, so they were not considered.
March 11th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
I’m surprised Noter2 isn’t on your guys’ list. I’ve been using it for a few months now and the best part for me is that it’s easy. It’s simple and it syncs perfectly with my computer. http://dbelement.com/apps/noter2
March 27th, 2009 at 8:03 am
Hey Amy K, can I ask what specifically you like about dbelement’s noter2?
On your suggestion, I checked it out. I took a look at the free version of the iphone app and the web/desktop version and ended up pretty dissapointed in both.
The design and interaction does not follow typical iphone interaction convention or styles, and the free iphone version is ad-supported in a way which hampers use.
I came across a few usability issues such as when creating a new note, you have to tap into the note to fill in the title instead of that happening automatically. The advertisement actually covers up the function keys, resulting in loss of data when I accidentally hit it instead of ’save’ (the app quit before saving and launched the app-store). That left me annoyed enough I would never pay for the full version.
There is no way to reuse completed items, so you can’t use this as a grocery list unless you like retyping every note.
The desktop version seems more like an afterthought than an integrated system that takes advantage of the affordances of a larger screen and full keyboard. Things like; return key submits the note, cursor focus moves into the new note title field, drag and drop notes at any time (instead of modal). It seems very much like it is just the iphone app directly ported over, interaction by interaction.