+20

Improve task creation procedures and reduce clicks

Ben 6 years ago updated by Alejandro Llorente 6 years ago 3
  1. Currently there's no way to assign a task to a User when creating a Task in Personal Tasks or in Direct Messages.  You can do that only from Teams and Forums (VERY BAD!!!).  You should be able to assign tasks to any users from ANYWHERE on Ryver.
  2. The Ryver /task command only brings up the task creation form popup.  It would be much better if using the /task command you could:
    1. Assign the task to one of more @users and have the asignees already appear in the task creation form once you press Enter.
    2. Write the Subject of the Task and have it already appear in the task creation form once you press Enter.
    3. Write the due date in Plain English (Friday 11:35 am, in 2 days, in 3 weeks, in 4 hours, etc) and have the due date already assigned in the task creation form once you press enter.
    4. Have the user pick a default due date (could be, for example, "Tomorrow 9 am" or "Tomorrow same time" and whenever no date info is entered in the command, have Ryver auto-assign the default due date.
  3. Once a Task is created, Ryver only gives a confirmation that such task was created if it was created in the user's own chat section and not when a task is created in a team of forum.  And the confirmation is not editable.  Instead, confirmations should:
    1. ALWAYS appear wherever you are.  If on another users chat, it should appear but stating "only visible to you".  In Forums or Teams it could appeare normally so everybody sees it.
    2. Should have the option to edit the task.  You should be able to quickly assign to other users, change title, change description, change due date, etc, etc.

Examples of a very useful Ryver Task creation command would be:


  • /task @user1 in 3 days SujectOfTheTask
  • /task @user1 @user2 in 4 hours SubjectOfTheTask
  • /task @user3 next Thursday SubjectOfTheTask
  • /task @user4 the first Monday of next month SubjectOfTheTask

I would also add that Ryver has to give Users the ability to write a task command from ANYWHERE in Ryver.  Right now you can do that only from CHAT, and not from TASKS or TOPICS.  There should be a way to write commands EVERYWHERE.


Regarding Tasks, what do I want as a user?

  1. The ability to create a task from WHEREVER I WANT and assign it to WHOMEVER I WANT. 
  2. The Ryver team should NOT make decisions about what users like.  If a I want to assign a task to a particular person ONLY.  Why not let me?  I should be the one to decide when I want to assign a task to a team and when to a person.  
  3. The ability to write a task command from ANYWHERE in Ryver.  Right now you can do that only from CHAT, and not from TASKS or TOPICS.  There should be a command line also below CHAT and TASKS.
  4. The ability to QUICKLY create a task with a command, and have it populate the task with the most important information.  Right now to create a Task with a due date/time and assigned to somebody, in Busybot takes me only one command and one click.  To create the same task in Ryver takes me: 1) Write the /task command, 2) Write the Subject, 3) Click on Team if I want to assign it to somebody, 4) Search for the Team I want to use, 5) Search for the teammates I want to assign to, 6) Click on Set the Due Date, 7) Pick a due date (I can’t pick date and time when first picking, only date), 8) Write the Due Time, 9) Click on Save.  In summary, 2 actions on BusyBot, 9 actions on Ryver.  I hope you can see the BIG DIFFERENCE it makes for us users.
  5. Besides the fact that I could want or like to assign something to a specific user, what about when I NEED to assign something to a specific user and it is supposed to be PRIVATE?  Why should other people be aware of such a task?  In Ryver, I would need to create a special Team of 2 people, me and that user.  Seems ridiculous.

Somedoby from Support at Ryver told me: “The biggest risk of introducing this feature (assign privately to one user only) is it would be really easy to just think in terms of "who" you want to perform a task, and always create tasks directly for them.”  

In MOST cases, I don’t mind and I even want a Task to be assigned to a person under a team.  So, why not make it the DEFAULT?  In other words, say I need to assign a task to a person in our Website Catalog team.  Once I assign a task to that person under that team, the default team for that person could be the last one used.  So, if for example I create a task using /task @user1 @team3 TODOSOMETHING Tomorrow 11 am, from then on I would not need to add the @team because the system would always use @team3 as default, until I change it.  Even better… the first time I create a task and assign it to somebody, FORCE ME to pick a team or make it private.  And use that as a default for the future.


I understand Ryver wants to foster collaboration.  But in doing so you are forcing users to take many mini-actions (click, write, click, click, write, click, write, click, click, etc).  It’s OK if you do this once or twice but it’s very annoying and time consuming for somebody that creates many tasks during the day, like many managers do.

I would do it as some kind of inline helper, like the one in Visual studio, helping you complete every aspect of the task creation