I’m a sucker for anything that transforms traditional ways of thinking into novel, interactive and beautiful design.
Diacarta — a visual calendaring app — is one such tool. To quote @raymondpirouz‘s description on Twitter, Diacarta is:
An iPhone calendaring app that uses iconography to visually segment the day’s events
In short, Diacarta takes the traditional horizontal timetable of the likes of Outlook and Google Calendar and visualizes it on an analog clock. You create activities by selecting one of nearly 60 icons, then dragging the event to a selected hour during the day.
Single-tapping allows you to view the event details, while double tapping on a scheduled icon allows you to edit the details.
I’m impressed with the unique approach to calendaring. What I like most about the idea of this sort of calendaring is that I’m able to visualize my day as I’ve learned to tell time. It’s much more intuitive than a time-stamped entry on a list in Outlook. Just like the planets move in a circular motion, so does time around a clock. Even digital clocks have a 12-hour (or 24-hour) cycle, although you only see the present moment.
Another benefit for such a visualization is that I can observe and get a different perspective of how I use my time as a fraction of a 12-hour day (currently you can only see 12-hour increments, which makes sense given the way a clock is designed). And because of the visual nature and my need to see that I actually fill my day with meaningful tasks, I find that I’ve scheduled my commute, sleep and even meal times.
Given these benefits, there’s definitely room to grow for this app. Here are some ideas, although I’m sure some of these functions are planned for version 2:
Syncing – Most of my meetings need to be on a traditional calendaring system anyways… just because the rest of the world is. [Dicarta has tweeted that this will be available in version 2.]
Customization – The ability to choose from a library of themed iconography. Alternatively, a way to upload your own icon sets.
Repeating Tasks – For routine items, I’d like to schedule them at once and incorporate choices like monthly on a particular day, weekday/weekend only and expiration dates.
Map Integration – Clicking on an address from the detail view opens Google Maps or any GPS app of your choosing, and navigate you to your next event.
Phone/Address Book Integration – Clicking on a phone number asks if you’d like to dial the number or add to your address book.
Web Integration – If a URL was included as part of the description, Diacarta launches the page in Safari.
Email Integration – Associate (or tag) an email that lists details of the meeting, and pull up that message in Mail for viewing. This would help to quickly and easily refresh one’s memory about what agenda items, for example.
Calendar sharing – Share the data on your calendar with other app users much like Google Calendar does, and allow for others (with appropriate permissions) to add to your calendar.
Three big ticket items would really push Diacarta — or any calendaring item for that matter — over the top of the innovation curve:
Linked Data – With linked data and the semantic web driving new technologies, it would be great to see a passive integration of the information a user enters, web links, geo-location data and individual behavioral trends. For example, if I include an entry for a Costco trip, the app would know which Costco I usually go to, and if I schedule my trip for 8:00 p.m., Diacarta would be smart enough to alert me that I would only have a half-hour to shop there instead of the hour I indicate because it would have crawled Costco’s website.
Geo-location – If you check-in via Foursquare or Gowalla at a location, then it automatically knows to make your task or event complete. Even better would be the ability for the iPhone to sentiently notify your location to apps like Diacarta, Foursquare and Gowalla.
Social Sharing – This is already integrated into many mobile apps and websites, so it would be seemingly simple to add. The ability to share an even to a Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn stream, or even add a photo to build into the Diacarta library. For a calendar event that involves a public place (like Staples Center), it could add a photo icon of Staples Center.
Marketing – While I hate being marketed to, I see an opportunity for a brand to “purchase” an icon for given demographics. For example, an activity like running could have a Nike Running icon integrated, particularly if the scheduled item is the Nike Women’s Marathon.
Diacarta is available from iTunes [link opens iTunes] for $1.99.
