Unable to choose which appointment to unmark

[maj0-0]

There is no way for the user to see or be sure they are unmarking the correct appointment, or to unmark a specific appointment without affecting others. If a user wants to unmark the previous appointment without affecting the most recent, they would have to manually reenter everything

[nus-se-script]

Team's Response

Hi, since our Appendix: Planned Enhancements plans to implement a Unmark Appointment recovers appointment details feature, we do not feel that even having this feature to unmark specific appointments is needed that much as of now.

Our product's main focus is on being an addressbook for insurance agents and not to manage appointments. It is not meant as a holistic tool that is able to also keep track of individual appointments of customers in detail. Hence, the marking and unmarking of appointments is only currently meant in this iteration to keep track of one appointment in the present/future, they are not meant as a holistic tool to keep track of the history of individual appointments. The commands only 1) Delete/Recover the current appointment, 2) Update the counter.

Simplicity and Focus: Keeping the marking and unmarking functionality simple and focused on the present and future appointments aligns with the application's primary purpose of being an address book that has a simple way to keep track of customers' appointments, avoiding unnecessary complexity by being a dedicated appointment tracker. Hence, it only keeps track of one appointment concurrently with no detailed history of past appointments to be fuss-free, and a simple completed counter that can be manually updated if there are inaccuracies with the number.

Resource Allocation: Resources (time, development effort, etc.) are better spent on enhancing core features that are more critical to the overall user experience or addressing higher-priority user stories as compared to implenting an Unmark specific appointments feature which would necessitate the overhaul of our appointment system and UX design to be able to handle multiple appointments for each customer.

Design Considerations and Behaviour: Even if the user were able to unmark a specific appointment, such as in the command Unmarkappt 1(customer) 3(appt), where the 3rd appointment of the customer has been unmarked, causing the counter to decrement by 1, it would not have significant value since the 3rd appointment's details would not be able to recovered, and if it were to be recovered under our Appendix: Planned Enhancements, we would not be able to hold multiple appointments for a customer or an appointment in the past. Implementing Unmarkappt 1 3 would not help our user significantly as there is a workaround: the user can delete his current appointment, decrement the counter using unmark, and add the current appointment back again to achieve the same functionality.

In conclusion, this can be a valid feature, but as of now, it does not seamlessly fit our product's image of simplicity and focus and it is troublesome to implement, requiring the re-design of the appointment feature and further defining of the appointment feature's restrictions and boundaries. Most importantly, it would require whole new functionalities being added to our appointment tracker if we want to implement this, making its implementation non-trivial. Hence, we are not sure if we want to implement this, much less in this iteration, especially when there is a method to achieve the same functionality as reasoned about in Design Considerations and Behaviour.

Items for the Tester to Verify

:question: Issue response

Team chose [response.NotInScope]

• [x] I disagree

Reason for disagreement: I appreciate your explanation on how and why you have implemented the appointment marking and unmarking feature the way that it is, however I'm still not sure on how these features are in line with the goals' stated in your User Guide.

1. Purpose of the Unmark Feature: I understand the current unmark feature removes the last marked appointment details, but I'm a bit puzzled about its utility if it results in the complete removal of appointment details. The ability to selectively unmark appointments, even if not a primary function, might align better with the application's intent to organize and track client interactions effectively.

2. Consistency with User Guide Statements: The user guide mentions that the app aims to "seamlessly organize clients' communication history" and "reduce the hassle of having to remember everything." However, the current functionality of marking and unmarking appointments, which erases their details from the system, seems to somewhat counter these objectives. By losing the appointment details, users might find it challenging to maintain a comprehensive history of interactions with clients.

3. Potential for Enhanced User Experience: While I understand the concern about complexity, perhaps a more nuanced approach to handling appointments could enhance the user experience. This could be in line with the application's goal of reducing the cognitive load on users. Instead of completely removing appointment details, a system that archives or retains some level of detail might better serve the users' needs without overly complicating the interface.

4. Balancing Simplicity with Functionality: I agree that keeping the application straightforward is important. However, adding a bit more flexibility to the appointment feature might strike a better balance between simplicity and functionality. This enhancement could potentially add significant value without drastically altering the application's core design and purpose.

In conclusion, while I understand and respect the current design decisions and the emphasis on resource allocation, I believe that revisiting the unmark feature could contribute positively to the app's overall functionality and user satisfaction.

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