Re: [Ayatana] Notifications in unity

[James Jenner <james.g.jenner@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 18 November 2011 03:54, Jo-Erlend Schinstad <joerlend.schinstad@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Den 17. nov. 2011 17:59, skrev staticd:

Why? This is something people have complained about in Windows for many years. After logging in;

System: «Java must be upgraded»
User: «Oh, but I just wanted to read my mail. Can I please do it some other time?»
System: «Ok, but I'll not let you get away with it for long. And I'll stay here until you click me. I'll get back to you in about an hour».
User: «Ugh»
System: «There is an upgrade for Morfon Antivirus. Click me.»
User: «.. I have to respond to this email. It's important. Click»
System: «Adobe Flash 11 is ready to be installed. Click me»
User: «Click.»
System: «There is a new version of Sun Java Web Start. Click me.»
User: «You know, you're starting to annoy me. Click»
System: «New version of Appx is available».
User: «Click.»
System: «Registry Cleaner has an important update».
User: «Clickclickclickclickclickclickclick.»

Hmm. I think your experience varies with others or is out of date. Do you have a source for your claim that "this is something people have complained about in windows for many years"? 

I suspect that what your talking about is different to what others are talking about. Do you comprehensively use windows now and if so what version? Is the indicators that your talking about operating system specific or application specific? To clarify under windows (95/Vista/7), a notification appears and then disappears after a short period of time, irrespective of whether the notification is interactive. Notifications are tied to the bottom right corner and are subtle. It's up to the user to interact if they so wish.

I do not understand why you think a user has to interact with a notification just because it is intractable. Interaction is optional and it is not a necessity for the interaction to disappear. Maybe your confusing different types of notifications under windows. Microsoft cannot control the behaviour of all software under windows. I've seen bad software utilise dialogs for notification, they must be dismissed and also change the focus. The friendly kind are the type that Microsoft use. 

My experience of other's experience with notifications that are intractable is that people generally ignore them and ask someone who knows more than they do when they know. It is extremely rare when I've had a call from someone who is worried about a notification that they have received and wont use their system until they understand what the issue is. Knowing such users I am sure they would react the same to a notification under Ubuntu, irrespective of whether the notification is interactive or not.

Using updates in your example is not appropriate because of the following:
a) notifications can be ignored; 
b) notifications disappear when ignored;
c) notifications are subtle, at the bottom right hand corner; and
b) under windows every single software must manage updates separately, while ubuntu has centralised management of updates.

Try the following example:

System: Notification appears for new email with subject/first line of email.
User: Glances at notification, chooses to ignore, continues with work.
System: Notification hides.
System: Notification appears for new email with subject/first line of email.
User: Glances at notification, decides it's important, clicks on notification and is immediately taken to email application with the email opened.

Regards,

James