Make space for more task selection actions

[smichel17]

Motivation

When selecting a task, a number of quick actions appear. Over time, we added more of these. As of https://github.com/mpcjanssen/simpletask-android/pull/1170#issuecomment-1118397262=, they no longer fit on phones with smaller screens, like my Galaxy S6:

The screen is 5.1 inches, 16:9, and 1440x2560 pixels (~577 ppi). I guess that's small by modern standards, but I still consider it fairly large; I need to shift my grip on the phone to reach the top of the screen, and I have large hands. So, I think we should support phones at least this small.

We also want to make room for other features that would benefit from a selection action, like https://github.com/mpcjanssen/simpletask-android/issues/1154#issuecomment-1079964866=.

Usability Goals

Things to preserve:

• Fewest number of taps to perform an action. Right now everything is one tap away (no submenus).
• Keep a consistent layout, to build muscle memory.
• Minimize animations and screen transitions. They are slow, especially for returning to the task list.
• Actions should not cover up too much of the task list.

Thoughts

I don't have a full design yet, but here's some ideas:

• I see 4 different conceptual groups of actions:

  • Related to task selection: Select-all and back (exit select mode), both in the top bar
    • A few people have told me they had trouble finding select-all up here, so maybe it's not the best place. Not sure where else to put it, though.
  • Edit the current selected tasks: completion, priority, lists, tags, due date, threshold date, all in the bottom bar.
    • The edit button kind of fits here. It's related to editing, but it opens a different screen, rather than immediately applying a change.
  • Remove tasks from the todo.txt file entirely: archive and delete, both in the top bar
    • I like these here, where they're hard to accidentally press.
  • Interacting with Android: share (top bar), create calendar appointment (FAB), pin as notification (bottom bar)
    • The actions when you long-press on a task (call a phone number, send an email, open a link… I forget if there are others) kind of fit this category too. Although they're more about doing the task than planning it.

• It would be nice to keep the bottom bar exclusively for "edit" actions. Maybe we can move the edit screen / pin notification actions elsewhere.

• With just 6 actions in the bottom bar, I think there's room for us to shift the FAB downward a bit, so it partially overlaps the bottom bar. This would make it cover less of the task list. It would look like the middle example below (stolen from here).

• Maybe we can combine all the "interacting with Android" and long-press actions into one menu somewhere?

  • Accessed by long pressing? Swiping up from the bottom of the screen (or down from the top)? Tapping on the FAB?
  • Alternatively, maybe move them all up to the top bar and put delete/archive/select-all in a menu somewhere (but again, where)?