A new patch for TrackLab is ready! Version 0.4.1 includes several improvements and bug fixes to make time tracking more convenient and stable. With this patch, I can finally focus on developing the next big update. Read on for the full patch notes.
Improvements
Usually, I release small patches with just a few bug fixes, but this time I decided to include some usability improvements as well. I’ve been using TrackLab for a while and noted several small issues, that are fixed now.
Toast notifications
First improvement is the addition of toast notifications for actions. Every action – delete, update, create – already had its own after-action event. For example:
- After creating an activity, the adding form resets to default
- After deleting an item from a list, the list becomes shorter.
I thought that these events are enough to let the user know everything is worked. However, the human brain is lazy and always looks for the shortest path. Instead of looking for a different after-action event each time, it wants a quick and easy response indicating that everything is okay.
That’s why I added toast notifications for actions – to improve UX. It may seem obvious because everyone uses them, but I’d like to know why.
Exit by double-pressing the back button
This is another feature which widely implemented in modern mobile apps. The answer to why is simple. When a user presses the back button, they expect one of the following: the app screen will change to the previous one, or the app will close. Sometimes the user has no idea what will happen after pressing the button, which can lead to unintentionally closing the app.
So why don’t all developers implement this in their apps?
- If the app has an obvious main screen as the starting point, it’s expected that every time the user presses the back button there, the app will close. It’s easy to understand that there’s nothing behind the start point.
- Another case is the one-screen app. There’s simply no navigation history.
- And of course, it may not be that important. Even if an unintentional app closing happens, the app is still in memory and can be restored right away without data loss.
TrackLab stores up to five of the last pages in its navigation history, and there’s no clear indication of which page is last in the stack. That’s why I implemented the double-press-to-exit feature.
Other improvements
- Action input field now expands to multiple lines for long text
- Suggestions now depend on the cursor position in the input field
- Search now matches any part of a string, not only the beginning
Full list you can read on the changelog page