Re: [Ayatana] Messaging Menu and the MeMenu

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Conscious User wrote on 20/12/10 11:57:
>...
> I think the Messaging Menu *should* be purely an inbox, because one
> of the most common complaints against the notifications redesign
> is how reacting to IM/mail notifications is now less efficient
> (opening an menu and looking for an entry instead of simply clicking
> on the tray icon). I personally think that the difference is
> negligible, but *only* if the menu is not too cluttered.

If a mail client's users are annoyed that it notifies them of new mail
in a uselessly non-interactive way, maybe it should stop doing that.
Maybe it should instead use just the messaging menu and a distinctive
sound, for example.

But leaving that aside, I don't see how that has anything to do with the
design of the messaging menu. How do you get from "non-interactive
IM/mail notifications are inefficient" to "the messaging menu should not
have an element for posting to Twitter"?

Maybe it's true that there shouldn't be *any* menu containing an item
for posting to Twitter, but not for that reason.

> I don't think the current separation between the Message and Me menus
> is necessarily a bad thing. I believe it only needs some refinement,
> both in design and implementation, to show that the idea of thinking
> functionality-wise (inbox vs. outbox) instead of application-wise
> (empathy, evolution, etc.) is not absurd as it seems at a first glance.

Even if something is great once you get used to it, if it's absurd at
first glance that's still a big design problem.

> Some things that get in the way of this objective now:
> 
> - Shortcuts for configuring im/microblog accounts in the Me Menu.
> This overlaps with the messaging menu directly and keeping those
> entries there does not make sense once the accounts are configured...
> the Messaging Menu does it more correctly, showing them only if
> no accounts are configured

If the menus were merged, probably we would need to jettison the
accounts items.

> - Ubuntu One in the Me Menu... I don't think it really fits.

Agreed.

> - "Contacts" and "Compose" in the Messaging Menu... having two
> "outbox" entries lost in the middle looks and feels wrong...
> and adds clutter
>...

How are they "outbox" entries?

- -- 
mpt
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