Re: [Ayatana] Solving the "user forgets about presentation mode" problem! (was Re: notify-osd + fullscreen + multiple monitors)

[Sohail Mirza <mirzmaster@xxxxxxxxx>]

To be quite honest, if the movie is any good, I will likely miss the notification anyways... but that's just me!  :)

If I really wanted to watch something while waiting for a particular notification, I would probably keep exiting full-screen to double-check my email/IM manually (I could've missed the notification, or maybe I'm just being antsy).  On the other hand, if it wasn't something I was waiting for, but just mildly interested in catching, well... I would probably finish my movie first.

I don't disagree that there might be the odd case where I'm watching a movie and I wouldn't mind being interrupted by an IM.  In this case we should think of a way to allow this, but without complex configuration or additional dialogues.

One thing to bear in mind is that receiving an unwanted (non-critical) notification is usually more detrimental than missing a wanted notification.  I can cite two examples of this:  1)  Of course, when making a presentation, it's an absolute no-no to have a dialogue or notification pop-up in front.  2)  If I'm at work I generally do not want IM notifications popping up at all in case a co-worker is strolling by and glances at my screen.

The "fullscreen = i'm busy" assumption is one step towards eliminating unwanted notifications.  The second step might be having notify-osd observe an availability indicator of some sort, or just having a way of disabling certain types of notifications.

To summarize, I think the mandate here is two-fold:  1)  To reduce the occurrences of unwanted notifications rather than making sure every notification is displayed.  2)  To accomplish this in a way that is virtually zero-configuration.

On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 11:44 AM, Vincenzo Ciancia <ciancia@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Il 07/07/2009 17:34, Sohail Mirza ha scritto:

Weighed against the configuration set and dialogues being proposing, I
still think that "full-screen = I'm busy" is a reasonable assumption to
make with the vast majority of the user population.  I would venture a
guess that most users don't even use, let alone understand how to,
full-screen non-media applications like Firefox or monodevelop.

Come on, forget about presentations, my mother does not do that. The other two full-screen apps are firefox (press F11, and I learned that from non-nerds) and the movie player. Plus flash which probably uses its own method. Just let us concentrate on movies. Do you agree that when you watch a movie you may be willing to be interrupted or not for reasons that no machine will understand at least with current technology? I mean: I have to wait for my colleague to contact me with a patch. I watch a movie in the meantime. I want to watch it fullscreen. This is no nerdy or special need. Just the fact that the two use cases (block notifications, and go full screen) are often  independent even if they look related. But I think there is already general agreement on this.

-- 
sfm