The point is, this kind of problems is the wheel that every starting coder feels the need to reinvent. How much innovation there is in linking an on-screen UI element like a button with a predefined SQL query? (eh, don’t answer that, I’m sure there is a patent for it :-/)
Sure, you may want a personalized app that is set up just right for you, but in that case just pick the right framework and assemble your app out of Lego blocks. You don’t need to build your own plastic injection moulding machinery.
If you want to use spreadsheet software to do your data management you usually just use Excel instead of writing your own code for your own spreadsheet needs.
There’s no comparable well-developed app that does data entry on smart phones very well.
Data entry is a different problem than just having a database.
I installed Memento and let my start by listing how it screws up: ① The multiple choice field starts by showing me an empty drop down menu. I have to click on it for making it expand. After selecting my choices I have to click on “Ok” to get back to my form. That’s clearly two clicks to many. ② Automatic time tracking is even worse than Google Forms. The field that tracks the time get’s shown to the user with “current time” with the term current time meaning. There’s no reason why it can’t do the time tracking in the background. And if I fill out 5 entries there’s no reason why it can’t give me 5 time stamps. I would also want 5 time stamps with milliseconds and Memento apparantly thinks that nobody needs milliseconds. ③ It doesn’t do notifications. For a use case like morning tracking it’s good to have a notifaction. That means that I can press “on”, “click on the notifaction” and I’m right at my form. There’s no need to unlock the phone to enter data. ④ Many of the buttons are just to small. Yes, I can click on small buttons but it’s not as fast and if I want to build the habit to track something for QS purposes convenience matters a great deal.
I don’t think “data entry” is the problem that Memento is designed to solve well. From a QS standpoint a feature like notification seems key but from a “build a database”-standpoint it isn’t.
Thinking in terms of QS leads to getting as much timestamps as possible but if you design a database than you don’t add columns that the user doesn’t explicitly suggest he wants to have.
Looks like a database with some input forms.
That’s a reduction that is valid for many, many applications.
A fair point :-)
Yeah, that’s why I kept comparing it to a spreadsheet. Ease of use is a big point. I don’t want to write SQL queries on my phone.
The point is, this kind of problems is the wheel that every starting coder feels the need to reinvent. How much innovation there is in linking an on-screen UI element like a button with a predefined SQL query? (eh, don’t answer that, I’m sure there is a patent for it :-/)
Sure, you may want a personalized app that is set up just right for you, but in that case just pick the right framework and assemble your app out of Lego blocks. You don’t need to build your own plastic injection moulding machinery.
If you want to use spreadsheet software to do your data management you usually just use Excel instead of writing your own code for your own spreadsheet needs.
There’s no comparable well-developed app that does data entry on smart phones very well.
There are Android databases, e.g. Memento. Doing data entry “well” depends on your needs.
Data entry is a different problem than just having a database.
I installed Memento and let my start by listing how it screws up:
① The multiple choice field starts by showing me an empty drop down menu. I have to click on it for making it expand. After selecting my choices I have to click on “Ok” to get back to my form. That’s clearly two clicks to many.
② Automatic time tracking is even worse than Google Forms. The field that tracks the time get’s shown to the user with “current time” with the term current time meaning. There’s no reason why it can’t do the time tracking in the background. And if I fill out 5 entries there’s no reason why it can’t give me 5 time stamps. I would also want 5 time stamps with milliseconds and Memento apparantly thinks that nobody needs milliseconds.
③ It doesn’t do notifications. For a use case like morning tracking it’s good to have a notifaction. That means that I can press “on”, “click on the notifaction” and I’m right at my form. There’s no need to unlock the phone to enter data.
④ Many of the buttons are just to small. Yes, I can click on small buttons but it’s not as fast and if I want to build the habit to track something for QS purposes convenience matters a great deal.
So go complain to Memento’s creator how it doesn’t fit your use case :-P
I don’t think “data entry” is the problem that Memento is designed to solve well. From a QS standpoint a feature like notification seems key but from a “build a database”-standpoint it isn’t.
Thinking in terms of QS leads to getting as much timestamps as possible but if you design a database than you don’t add columns that the user doesn’t explicitly suggest he wants to have.