Lifeline Sprint Report #1: break launch button and cleaned Preferences

Tim

Metz

May 30, 2021

Here's what we did for Lifeline in Sprint #1 and what you can expect for the next one.

What's going on, and what's coming up for Lifeline? A quick summary of Sprint #1 and our plans for the next two weeks.

In the previous Sprint we...

...added a Launch break option to the taskbar menu, so you can now start a break the same way as sessions and meetings.
...cleaned up Lifeline's Preferences. We added a bunch of new stuff in a hurry over the past months, so we cleaned up a few sections of our Preferences in the past Sprint as they got messy.
...changed the behavior of your Lifeline while in session. When you reach the end of your session—say 25 minutes—your lifeline used to start over, "emptying" the line all the way to the left of your screen. This visualization makes it hard to figure out how long you've been in session. We've changed this, so your lifeline now expands when you reach the end, and it continues to do so to represent the entire length of your session no matter how long you keep going.
...fixed minor bugs and UX inconsistencies. We improved some copy, fixed a bug with the expand lifeline shortcut during meetings, and more such errors.
...released these changes as Lifeline 1.4.3.

...add a 14-day free trial option, so you can try out our Pro features without being forced to take a subscription immediately.
...improve the product tour, most notably with a welcome screen. We noticed from some first user experience recordings that Lifeline's installation jumps confusingly from the macOS App Store to the first step of the product tour.
...fix minor bugs and make UX improvements. There can be an issue with earlier notifications showing up en masse when you return to your computer. We also want to try some UX tweaks, like adding emojis to the essential options in the taskbar dropdown.

Do you have questions, feedback, or ideas for Lifeline? Reach out on Twitter or drop us an email.