Re: [Ayatana] Notifications are annoying when typing in the upper right corner of a window

[Steve Dodier <sidnioulz@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

I think Mike said what i wanted to say.

My worry is that you get a notification as soon as you stop typing. Usually, when i'm typing a document (i'm not speaking about forms, which indeed require me to watch the label of the fields i'm filling), the only moments when i stop are when i need to think about what i wrote, which happens a lot. I think an user using a word processor or writing an email would likely stop typing to think too, and thus triggering the notifications at this exact time would be counter productive.

The current notifications are not that intrusive (except in specific cases : firefox's search field / fullscreen apps), and i think users can easily ignore me when they're busy typing a document or browsing the web, as long as they dont pop up in the middle of the screen (when i watch my family using Ubuntu, i notice they dont react to the notifications, and i didn't hear any complaint about them).

I dont think we'd gain much by trying to guess the behaviour of the user, because it requires being able to imagine absolutely any activity / behaviour (s)he can have. My HMI courses were poor but i've been warned that it wasnt an feasible task, back then. We would always forget an usecase and disturb someone who's focusing on his work.

That's why i think it would be wise to only delay notifications when it is obvious that the user needs his(her) eyes somewhere else. The best approach for me consists of making notifications that are easy to spot on the screen but that someone focusing on something else can easily not notice. I think notify-osd is approaching this state now, and we should focus on improving its last bugs, this will likely receive more praise from users ;)

Cordially, SD.