Flexible Input (Touch, Keyboard, NFC, Pebble, Pen, Beacons)

TimeTracker gives you flexible options HowTo input data:

Use your Touch Screen
Use Keyboard if you prefer this way to enter data
Tap on NFC Tags to Start / Stop the time
Start / Stop from your SmartWatch
Do CheckIns from Indoor Navigation (Beacons)
Touch Pens to sign reports

Touch Screens

This will be the easiest part – all mobile apps are developed with touchscreens in mind.

Think about screen sizes and test on different devices.

Support Portrait and Landscape – always respect the way a user holds the device – an app shouldn’t dictate the orientation.

Keyboard Devices

BlackBerry Q5, Q10 and upcoming Passport are great Keyboard Devices. Cascades supports shortcuts – you have to think about carefully and please make them translatable – ‘E’ for Edit can be different for other languages. Always provide same shortcuts for same actions through all pages of your app.

Shortcuts will speed up the way users can do their work – per ex. typing g-g-g from HomeScreen starts a new time. (g means ‘Go On’ and will be a different letter if translated)

NFC

NFC can be even faster the a keyboard: Touch a NFC Tag and the Action will be executed. Make it easy to create Tags from inside the App – but if the user doesn’t use NFC provide a UI Setting to hide the Tab.

SmartWatch (Pebble)

Another cool way to get input done is using a smartwatch. TimeTracker 2.0 will support Pebble – currently experimentell implemented.

Imagine a service employee at customer site: he/she wants to start or stop a Time – why not simply doing this from the Pebble in stead of searching for the smartphone, opening the app and do it there.

Beacons

Maybe there are situations where you can start or stop times from detected location: entering or leaving a conference room can start / stop a time. Beacons can help here and tell the app when the conference room was entered or leaved.