But, when does it end?

As you might have noticed and/or read about in my last blog, we have taken a decidedly event-based direction on PUBLIC CHALK. As I discussed, we think that an event, in general, has a minimum lifespan of 2 weeks… what with all the planning beforehand and all the gossiping afterward.

Throughout the design of PUBLIC CHALK, we attempted to keep everything as simple as possible. Turns out, in some areas we did a very bad job and in some areas we did too good of a job. As we ask people to try out the system, we notice immediately where the flaws in our user interface are and most of the time it results in the removal of a step or field and every once in a while it results in some copy-update that makes the page make more sense.

But, just the other day we were watching one of our guinea pigs test out PUBLIC CHALK. They had created an event and dutifully put in the start time, the location, and a description and then asked a question that we hadn’t allowed for, “But, when does it end?”

I guess in our zeal to keep things simple we figured that, being mostly social events, that it would be over when it was over. But, in the real world, this doesn’t work. For example, if you start a party at 2pm, some guests are going to expect to stay until 10pm and be fed dinner somewhere along the line. If that isn’t your intent, then you had better put an end time of 5:30 on the event so people know to leave your apartment and go get their own food. You also don’t want the lingering house guest who ends up staying at your place for an entire weekend when the party was over on Saturday evening.

And, it isn’t only about people staying too long – but also about people not coming at all. If you create an event that starts at, lets say 2pm on Saturday, and no end time is specified even though you fully expect it to be over by 5pm then you are going to exclude those people who have a prior commitment at 7pm on Saturday.

All this timing! And, as they say, timing is everything. On a more personal note, I host a yearly “Holiday Kickoff” party. The first year, I started the party at 5pm and scheduled the catering company to show up at 6pm. That resulted in my guests showing up fresh from a restaurant dinner at 7:30 to a fully catered party… to bad all the food was cold by then. I’ve since changed it to 2pm which results in my guests showing up hungry at 4pm. By the time the caterer gets there at 6pm people are ready to eat. And, whoever isn’t there at the beginning of the party… well, we just start without them. Oddly, I’ve ended up with weekend house guests as a result of this party. Maybe this year, I’ll put an end time on the whole affair!

ETJ