Re: [Ayatana] Farewell to the notification area

[Frederik Nnaji <frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 22:40, Conscious User <conscioususer@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> If people don't figure out how to use something we designed, the answer
>> is to improve the design, and not to mount a campaign to educate them :-)
>>
>> By which I mean that the pieces should feel more natural, and getting
>> things done should be more natural, or we're not succeeding.
>
> It is a noble goal and I support it 100%, but let's not forget that,
> as good as the indicators are and as bad as the notification area is,
> the notification area is what people are used to. So a little push
> might be necessary to overcome the natural resistance to change.
>
> Also, there is a limit to how natural something can be. I have
> absolutely no idea how we could make obvious to a first time user
> that the indicator-messages icon is supposed to change when you
> receive a new message, for example.

that's right, certain things might create a difficult learning curve.
we should always keep one eye on the excellent advice found in the
GNOME Human Interface Guidelines, which is a perfect reference for
everything you want to design, even a house or a toaster.

this particular case you are describing will still not be so terribly
bad on the novice:
colors become self-explaining, once you see the bubbles with them.
the indicator menus are also buttons and actual menus, not only notifiers.
the button aspect is naturally apparent already