Product Spotlight: Calendar View Filters and Improvements

Overview

Usability and performance are essential for efficient dispatching, which is why we never stop listening to our users when it comes to improving the scheduling experience. We recently announced some big enhancements to the Map View based on user feedback, and are just as excited to introduce improvements to the overall usability and performance of the Calendar View. 

The Feedback / Enhancement Cycle

Like most of the new products and features we develop, these improvements to our Calendar View were driven by feedback from our users. Here’s a preview of what’s new along with the customer insights that inspired them.

Page-level Filters

When managing a large number of technicians and tasks, dispatchers were feeling overwhelmed by information. If they needed to focus their attention on a specific set of tasks or technicians, they found themselves scrolling and searching frequently.

With new page-level filters, dispatchers can now filter the Calendar View by Task Type, Region, Shift, and Technician so they can better focus on the work at hand.  

Task Details in the Week/Month View

Dispatchers were using the Week and Month views of the Calendar more frequently than anticipated. But they faced a problem: the task-level details present when viewing the calendar by Day were not visible in the Week and Month views. 

The solution is what you might expect. Week and Months views in the Calendar now show the same task-level details present in the Day view.

Ability to Zoom in and Out

Dispatchers managing a large number of tasks were sometimes having trouble finding and reading them on the calendar. In particular, when viewing the calendar by Week or Month, the timeframes are condensed making it even more difficult to find and manipulate tasks. 

To help solve this problem, we’ve introduced a new “Zoom” feature into the calendar. Using the zoom in (or zoom out) button, dispatchers can decrease the density of the calendar and make tasks appear larger on the screen so they are both easier to read and easier to select/move. 

Calendar Performance

Finally, dispatchers are always looking for ways to save time, and shaving even a single second off a frequent activity can pay long-term dividends. So when dispatchers that use the Calendar View frequently asked us to improve page load times, we took their requests to heart. 

To facilitate quicker load times and improve overall performance, the Calendar View now leverages lazy loading and pagination.

Want to see the Zinier platform in action? Schedule a demo today!