Extension requires restart after timeout

[wting]

Once the timer ends, I need to restart the extension in order to see blocked sites despite being in the rest period.

This is reflected in the top review of the extension:

Aug 28, 2012 Mia Scozzafava

I love this, it's really useful, and I'm getting a lot of work done. My only issue is that I have to restart my browser every time a session is finished if I need to go and look something up. Even if the timer has rung and told me that it's break time, I cannot take that break because it won't let me onto the sites it's blocked. Please fix?

15 out of 18 found this review helpful.

[matchu]

Yeah, I've seen this review, but I've never been able to reproduce it. Maybe I'm just misunderstanding.

Here's expected flow immediately after installing the extension, with no changes in settings:

1. I click the toolbar button to start a work timer. I try to access Facebook.com. but it's blocked.
2. After 25 minutes, the work timer expires. I try to access Facebook.com, but it's still blocked, since a break timer has not yet started. (We don't cycle through the timers automatically, or else they can get out of sync with the actual user's workflow pretty quickly.)
3. I click the toolbar button to start a break timer. I try to access Facebook.com, and it is fully accessible.
4. After 5 minutes, the break timer expires. I try to access Facebook.com, and it is fully accessible, since a work timer has not yet started.
5. Go to step 1 (optional).

It could be that users are stopping at step 2 and not realizing that a break timer must be explicitly started. That's a UI clarity issue, and the plan for the 2.0 release (whenever that comes along >_<) includes a clear indication on the page block overlay that it won't go away until the next break starts. Hopefully that will resolve this usability issue.

Unless, of course, it's not a usability issue and it's actually a legit bug—in which case, it'd be helpful to hear what version of Chrome you're using and exactly what steps you take to make this bug happen, and then we can start checking the console for errors and digging deeper into the extension's state. But here's hoping it's just the usability thing.

Thanks!

[wting]

It could be that users are stopping at step 2 and not realizing that a break timer must be explicitly started. That's a UI clarity issue, and the plan for the 2.0 release (whenever that comes along >_<) includes a clear indication on the page block overlay that it won't go away until the next break starts. Hopefully that will resolve this usability issue.

OK, this is definitely a usability issue. I didn't realize I needed to initiate the break timer as well. Here are a couple suggestions:

• In the bottom right pop up dialog, notify users that they need to explicitly click on the button again to initiate break timer.
• Detect if someone is visiting a blocked page with the work timer expired, and automatically initiate the break timer.
• On the block page, mention that break timer must be manually initiated.

Don't know if this issue should be closed or not, I'll leave it up to you.

[matchu]

Mkay, cool. My current thought is to, at the end of a work timer, show a "Start Break" button and an "All Done" button. The controls themselves will be helpful, and also their mere presence oughta help indicate that further user action is required. That UI might get more finely tuned as we go along.

I'll leave this open for the time being, then close it once a satisfactory beta is pushed to this repo :) Thanks!

[wting]

Mkay, cool. My current thought is to, at the end of a work timer, show a "Start Break" button and an "All Done" button. The controls themselves will be helpful, and also their mere presence oughta help indicate that further user action is required. That UI might get more finely tuned as we go along.

That sounds pretty good. In either case, I've solved my only issue with the extension. Thanks for all your work!

[GitTom]

I experienced this too. Once the work phase was over I was expecting that restrictions would be lifted, even if I hadn't started the break phase. For example, if you are finished for the day, you expect to be able to browse normally without starting a break phase.

[matchu]

The current draft of v2 includes controls on the overlay after the timer ends, including the ability to indicate that you're done working, so I think that sounds resolve clarity issues and redundant-break awkwardness :) On May 30, 2014 10:51 AM, "GitTom" [email protected] wrote:

I experienced this too. Once the work phase was over I was expecting that restrictions would be lifted, even if I hadn't started the break phase. For example, if you are finished for the day, you expect to be able to browse normally without starting a break phase.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/matchu/Strict-Workflow/issues/26#issuecomment-44679549 .

[GitTom]

Great. Looking forward to v2. Thanks.

[matchu]

You can play with the current draft on the v2a branch, though folks on Windows get annoying warnings when side loading extensions now, so up to you on whether it's worthwhile ;P On May 30, 2014 10:56 AM, "GitTom" [email protected] wrote:

Great. Looking forward to v2. Thanks.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/matchu/Strict-Workflow/issues/26#issuecomment-44680154 .

[GitTom]

I am on Windows so I think I'll wait.