Change view and colors of the find a time modal (free/busy)

[maximelehericy]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

hello there,
every time I have to look for an available slot, I find my self very confused in front of the find a time modal...

• one need to horizontally scroll to browse the whole day, a full day view, or at least 9 to 5 would be great
• the colors are completely confusing me:
  • the colors in the legend look slightly different from the colors in the grid
  • usually the out of office is a rather dark color but in our case is a light color
  • usually the meetings are represented in a light color, but are here reprensented in a medium contrasted rather dark color
  • the available slots are usually the same color as the background to show as empty, but in our case it seems there is a grey

this really asks me a massive brain effort to try to understand this, and I always end a bit unsure whether or not the attendee is available.

screenshot of our find a time

screenshot of TB find a time

Outlook
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/all/send-availability-on-outlook-web-like-you-can-do/15dde2a7-cccf-419c-8307-2c46aecc0ffc

Describe the solution you'd like

• a 9 to 5 view of availability
• available slots should be same color as background (as if there were nothing, no event)
• I would prefer taken slots to be in a light color, as it is usually the case is your own calendar
• I would prefer out of office slots to be in a darker color
• make the legend colors exactly match the find a time grid colors

Describe alternatives you've considered

No response

Additional context

No response

[alexanderdd]

the available slots are usually the same color as the background to show as empty, but in our case it seems there is a grey

Can confirm, here is an example with light theme. During the time where I should be free, I am shown in light grey instead of white. There is no color in the help-bubble that explains this color. The time before 8:30 and after 15:00 are set as not available, and is correctly displayed in dark grey.

-> We need a more obvious way to show "not available". Colorblind people need to be able to differentiate it. IMO it should be red crossed lines (not violet as in MS example) for example like this:

-> We need to have excellent UX for both light and dark mode, and for people with color blindness. I agree the colors need to change, be more vivid, more clear what they mean (without looking at the explanation), and maybe involve not just solid colors but also patterns.

[alexanderdd]

I found out from @st3iny :

there are two shades of grey because one of them means that the person is out of office and the other means that at least one person is not available during a given time frame. That is why the darker shade only on some individual rows (persons) but the brighter shade is visible across all rows.

I see two ways to continue, which do you like better? @nimishavijay ?

1. the two situations (this person not available vs. one of all persons not available) should have easier to distinguish colors, and it would have to be explained in the ?-button.
2. each participants availability bar should only be colored according to their availability, not according to others. Seems more intuitive.

Also, why do we have "unknown"? That is so confusing to a user. Thunderbird seems to also have it, MS not.