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Re: [Ayatana] GSoC '10 Idea : NotifyOSD improvements
On 04/20/2010 10:42 AM, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
A few design features that I have in mind (possibly conflicting from
the specs in the wiki) :
1.) Stacking, that'd make the bubbles dock downwards as they are
initiated and start to stack up as the bubble times finish away.
The idea is that a bubble should stay on screen long enough for you to
read it. If two or more bubbles were on screen at once, you'd have only
half the time to read each. We could compensate for that by making them
both stick around twice as long -- but that would mean the more bubbles
arrived at once, the more annoying each of them would be.
as in the thread on sound-themes, here's still the option of making
duration and color dynamic:
i.e. a (complex) function of mode, type, urgency and progress of the
phenomenon i'm being notified about.
on another note:
what's most disturbing to anybody i discussed our bubbles with, is the
absence of a simple way to suppress or dismiss them. what's with that? i
don't necessarily need a configuration utility or a seperate section
within the appearance settings.. an ON/OFF button would suffice for my
desktop usage..
let me also point out, that interaction with bubbles is so often
mentioned, because the users have no other way of entering the
conversation they are being alarmed about.
with about 30% - 50% netbook users around me in our monthly meetings, a
great number of us is faced with the same problems: small displays of
usually 10" size, trackpad (uncomfortable for the little messaging
menu), panels on autohide, messaging menu unreachable and out of sight /
reach, only way to know there's a new message waiting is by the window
list, that is, if THAT panel is not also already on autohide.
now thanks a lot for informative bubbles, but how will they address
these issues, if i have no way of using e.g. incoming-chat-message
notifications interactively?
i was reminded of the importance of seperating information and
interaction in the design of a UI.
might this thumb-law of UI design deserve more attention in respect to
our bubbles?
last but not least, i can imagine 3 levels of bubble-annoyance ;) :
*heavy - available, chatty, typing and moving the mouse
longest period reasonable, maximum obtrusiveness, maximum interactivity
e.g. dismiss on click, open chat bubbles on gesture, high opacity and/or
alerting bgcolor
*medium - away, extended away, afk etc..
medium display period of bubbles, dismissal on gesture, medium opacity
and/or less alerting bgcolor
*heavy - busy, N/A, do not disturb
shortest tolerable display period, minimal intrusion, dismiss on heavy
keyboard/mouse activity, low opacity and/or grey background
is this absolute nonesense, or could one consider it a direction to
think about?