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[JaSauders <1304073@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I believe it's also worth noting that the way the icons get highlighted
when they need attention has changed as well. In 13.10 and prior, all
four sides of the icon highlighted. In 14.04, it's just two of the four
sides (left + top sides). In some cases it seems that only the top edge
of the icon when highlighted shows any difference, and even then it
looks nearly identical when I click on the icon, thereby removing the
highlight. Meanwhile, the left side of the icon that also gets
highlighted seems to not change.

I understand that these items were changed as part of the conversion
process to SVG, allowing them to scale up and look great on HiDPI
screens. While I support this very much, it really does feel like a
usability regression as it is now more difficult to tell when an
application needs attention. If *everything* supported the Message Tray,
this would be less of an issue as a user could just look there and see
what took place. To be quite frank, the Message Tray certainly isn't
supported by all applications, so you might see my angle on this now.

Take into consideration that somebody may get up from their computer for
a moment and come back several moments later. If the icons do not
clearly depict that they received a message, or somebody highlighted
them on IRC, etc., they wouldn't otherwise know. Given the fact that the
current highlight is less obvious and the pips are smaller (making it
more difficult to tell if a pip is blue or white to signify the
difference), suddenly it becomes a burden to the user.

Thinking it was the fact that I had selected "colored edges" for the
"icon backgrounds" feature, I set everything back to default, just as it
comes out of the box in 14.04, so then the icons had a solid color
background without any colored edges. Sadly, this was no change (if
anything, it was slightly worse since I didn't even have two of the four
highlighted edges). In that case, I had to rely entirely on the color of
the now smaller pips, which is cumbersome and quite a hassle. I still
believe that having the ability to scale the pips independently would be
a wildly effective method so the user may choose based on their
preference, but with how close we are to release, at the very least I
would favor seeing a more 13.10-ish size of pips on my 14.04 installs.

Based on my conversations with users, it sounds like a lot of people
don't notice this change. That said, I certainly notice when my messages
go missed until I happen to message them again when they are in front of
their system, thanks to the notification in the upper right corner on
their display. :)

Again, thank you for your time and efforts. Have a great day!

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1304073

Title:
  14.04 Unity pips (white dots in bar) are now too small.

Status in “unity” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  On all 14.04 installs I've tinkered with so far they've all exhibited
  this behavior. The pips (white dots) next to the icons in the Unity
  bar are too small. I never noticed this before, so I went back to a
  13.10 install to compare. The pips on 14.04 are so small that they,
  quite frankly, feel useless. They need to be of adequate size in an
  effort to be easily seen by the user, regardless of the actual icon
  size.

  Take note of the size of the white pips on the Unity launcher in the
  following screenshots.

  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mc4k4yyjm5nbbzk/4t6SgqVN8H

  Here's an alternative 'direct download' link to the images just in
  case: http://skynetcore.org/shared/pips.tar.gz

  In an effort to present an accurate comparison I included the following screenshots
  (note that 48 px on both 13.10 and 14.04 seem identical, it's just the smaller sizes that down-scale too far)
  13.10 - 32 px
  14.04 - 32 px

  13.10 - 48 px
  14.04 - 48 px

  I also included a 5th screenshot of 26 px in 14.04 in case it helps
  further show what I'm referencing.

  While scaling the size of the pips makes sense to a certain degree,
  the current behavior scales them far too small. I feel as though they
  should have (at minimal) a 13.10 oriented type of scaling so they are
  more easily viewable, and therefore, more useful. If they could be
  adjusted in size, that would be a monumental bonus as well, but I have
  a feeling that might be a stretch for the given time frame. :)

  Thank you for your time!

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
  Package: unity 7.2.0+14.04.20140403-0ubuntu1
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-23.45-generic 3.13.8
  Uname: Linux 3.13.0-23-generic x86_64
  .tmp.unity.support.test.0:
   
  ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu1
  Architecture: amd64
  CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
  CompositorRunning: compiz
  CompositorUnredirectDriverBlacklist: '(nouveau|Intel).*Mesa 8.0'
  CompositorUnredirectFSW: true
  CurrentDesktop: Unity
  Date: Mon Apr  7 17:41:39 2014
  DistUpgraded: Fresh install
  DistroCodename: trusty
  DistroVariant: ubuntu
  GraphicsCard:
   Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0116] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
     Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:0009]
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-04-01 (6 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Daily amd64 (20140330)
  MachineType: TOSHIBA PORTEGE Z835
  ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-23-generic root=UUID=5d7f7158-1b5b-4946-9916-b8a0c2f59525 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
  SourcePackage: unity
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
  dmi.bios.date: 02/08/2012
  dmi.bios.vendor: TOSHIBA
  dmi.bios.version: Version 1.60
  dmi.board.asset.tag: 0000000000
  dmi.board.name: Portable PC
  dmi.board.vendor: TOSHIBA
  dmi.board.version: Version A0
  dmi.chassis.asset.tag: 0000000000
  dmi.chassis.type: 10
  dmi.chassis.vendor: TOSHIBA
  dmi.chassis.version: Version 1.0
  dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnTOSHIBA:bvrVersion1.60:bd02/08/2012:svnTOSHIBA:pnPORTEGEZ835:pvrPT224U-013021:rvnTOSHIBA:rnPortablePC:rvrVersionA0:cvnTOSHIBA:ct10:cvrVersion1.0:
  dmi.product.name: PORTEGE Z835
  dmi.product.version: PT224U-013021
  dmi.sys.vendor: TOSHIBA
  version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.11+14.04.20140328-0ubuntu1
  version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
  version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.52-1
  version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 10.1.0-4ubuntu1
  version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
  version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 10.1.0-4ubuntu1
  version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.15.0-1ubuntu7
  version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.8.2-1ubuntu2
  version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3
  version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.910-0ubuntu1
  version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.10-1ubuntu2
  xserver.bootTime: Mon Apr  7 17:24:40 2014
  xserver.configfile: default
  xserver.errors:
   
  xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
  xserver.outputs:
   
  xserver.version: 2:1.15.0-1ubuntu7

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