A poorly implemented port from iOS to OSX

Anishu did an excellent job with HomeBudget for the iPad, other than Dropbox synchronization security. As such, I was anxiously awaiting the release of HomeBudget for OSX. When compared with the user interface and reporting sophistication of iBank, HomeBudget for OSX pales in comparison. It appears Anishu just put a Java wrapper around the iOS version of the application, and showed no imagination with the OSX user interface at all. The app cant remember window positions or column resizing, doesnt allow column reordering, and has crude data entry support.

Every action seems to require mousing around; there are few if any keyboard shortcuts supported. Functions that appear in one place on the iOS version of the app are stuck in totally unobvious places on OSX version, i.e., adding interest earned to an account you are viewing requires leaving the account and going to the Income screen where you have to hunt for the account you were previously viewing in a drop-down list to add income, then navigate back to the Accounts view to see the results of your actions.

Most data entry operations occur in small data entry panes crowded with drop-down lists. The lists do not support element location via typing the first few letters of the entry being sought. Further, each drop-down list only shows eight items, so youre continuously hunting for the item you want. Anishu doesnt take advantage of Mac screen real estate, or a touch-pad interface in any meaningful way. Virtually every function seems to be presented in a modal window that covers any prior activity and must be dismissed with a mouse click before continuing what you were doing before.

All in all a huge step backward from their iOS effort. It seems they did the mimimum they could to port HomeBudget from iOS to OSX. Virtually any function that the OSX version supports can be performed in no more than half the time, and with half the frustration, on the iPad version. Reports on the iOS version are more sophisticated and configurable than the OSX version

In summary, after 6 - 8 hours of rigorous testing, a huge disappointment - wait until they come out with a native OSX version that actually gives some consideration to Apples Human Interface Guidelines and shows some user interface sophistication before buying this version. Stick with the iPad version.

mryisdtdelrey about HomeBudget with Sync