Designing with a Particular User in Mind
Now we are going to turn to more general issues of design. First, we are going to explore how the audience and expected use of an application can shape how it is designed. To this end we will compare three applications: the built-in Date Book, Datebook+, and DateBk4.
Comparing Date Book, Datebook+, and DateBk4
The application, DateBk4, by Pimlico Software ( http://www.pimlicosoftware.com) has been extremely popular with Palm users through several revisions. It is so well liked that Handspring is shipping a simpler version of the application, called Datebook+, on all Handspring Visors. This situation allows us a unique opportunity to study one type of application (the scheduling type) that has been designed for different audiences. The built-in Date Book and Datebook+ are designed for everybody. DateBk4 is for sophisticated Palm power users. Both Datebook+ and DateBk4 are intended to offer the Palm user more useful alternatives to the built-in Date Book application.
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