As I’ve been thinking about how to standardize the web, I also realized that my organizer, EPIM, is so incredibly DISorganized.
Even after 11 years of using EPIM, it causes so much frustration, especially since I’m now using it for email. NO undo button for accidental deletions! And then try finding the deleted mail in 10 accounts …
I am quite happy with the ability to set up rules easily, color coding important mail and spam filtering rules work well (don’t email me from a .co domain, it’s automatically spammed)
So when I got an email about new features in EPIM release 10, I was excited and immediately checked it out:
https://www.essentialpim.com/blog-and-news/blog/new-features-in-essentialpim-10-part-2?
Moving tasks that haven’t been completed to the next day is a no-brainer. But the WEATHER? Seriously?
So I tried to submit a quick comment.
Here’s what happened:
Hmmm, “empty solution not allowed”.
I tried posting a much shorter comment, got the same error. And that’s exactly what I’m talking about, the constant frustration. On an average day, this happens at least 10 times. Nothing works as it should.
So I decided to post it here. SOMEBODY ought to pick up the ball and run with it — make a kick-ass organizer for just about everybody who ever used a computer. And, on that note, I don’t use the EPIM app on the phone at all. Installed it once, but I HATE using the damn phone, didn’t need the aggravation, trying to get synchronizing to work and then how would I actually use it when I have so much trouble even on a 24″ monitor?
I realize that old people are considered unimportant.
They’re supposed to sit in front of the TV and die quickly so they’re no longer a burden to society.
However, having lived in a retirement community for 22 years, I know that most old people can and want to be productive members of society and in 2022, that requires a computer and being able to use the internet. Not Facebook, but the web. And it requires being able to store and easily retrieve the information found.
SOMEBODY has to make an easy-to-use and highly customizable organizer!
With COLORS and SHAPES, that’s how users remember.
Maybe EPIM could license their code to a developer for a “basic” and much more usable version?
I’ve seen software with “basic” and “expert” skins, that would be ideal.
Here is the comment I wasn’t able to submit at the EPIM blog:
Hello,
I’ve been using EPIM since 2010, but did not realize why I had only used it to keep notes until I started using it for email for about 10 accounts a few months ago.
EPIM is incredibly difficult to use because the designers seem colorblind and nothing is customizable. EVERYTHING LOOKS THE SAME!
All these little boxes, same shape, same color, and then they’re not even in the same place all the time! Depending on which box you’re on, the location CHANGES because of the text that’s displayed.
I remember posting at your blog once before and it turned out that many of my suggestions were already available, I just didn’t know and thank you so much for your detailed reply back then. So I’m hopeful I just missed how to customize.
There isn’t a single customizable toolbar and ALL my frequently used buttons need to be in the TOP toolbar.
Having to switch from notes to email requires me to move the curser all the way to the LEFT. Do you know of any other software requiring so much effort?
Literally half the times I click on the WRONG box.
I was using Eudora for about 20 years, it was THAT good even though it had been abandoned for many years. Then The Bat was good too, until it continually lost my customizations last year and support had no solution and I finally moved my email to EPIM last year.
I LIKE your one-click “unread” button, The Bat was missing that.
But WHY would you put “archive” next to it and THEN “delete”. I’ve never archived anything in my entire life until I’ve done it by mistake.
Why is nothing customizable? Why does everything look the same?
And NO undo buttons!
And the email search is not great either. Trying to find deleted emails is nightmarish.
You may not be aware of this, but there is a HUGE market for people with early-onset Alzheimers. About half the people in their 60s suffer from cognitive decline. I suffered stress-induced brain damage a couple of years ago, mostly affecting my ability to focus and short-term memory. I know what it’s like when you can’t remember shit.
I’m finally learning Divi and starting a new site and I’ll be asking legislators to enact an American for Disabilities Act that applies to the internet. We need to STANDARDIZE the web as we do with traffic signs.
You don’t put the stop sign on the left side of the road (in America) and make it green or blue. Everybody knows that we learn and remember best with colors and shapes. Every commercial site needs to have contact, about, help, etc. in the same place, same color to eliminate the constant frustration looking for these buttons.
When it comes to EPIM, everybody uses it differently, so it really needs to be customizable.
I don’t even use the calendar and to-do, although I sure have plenty to do and to remember. But it’s too frustrating to constantly be looking for buttons that all look the same.
You can have however many power users, or you can have 10 times more paying customers who just need to keep track of a few things. SOMEBODY needs to make an easy-to-use organizer with email and I hope it’ll be EPIM!
I obviously like EPIM or wouldn’t have used it so long, but the user experience is not what it could be. And, maybe I just haven’t figured out HOW to do things.
Why is everything so hard? A 5-minute comment turned into another hour wasted …
