On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 20:16, Mitja Pagon
<mitja.pagon@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Still I fail to see what actual problem(s) windicators are meant solve or in what way are they supposed to better UX. To me it seem like it's a solution in of search of a problem to solve.
But why limit indicators to the panel? Let’s make it possible for applications to use indicators themselves, for all the things that indicators are good at:
* Conveying a particular state, such as whether or not the application is connected,
* Providing a handle for the indicator menu, to modify that state
Also, as MPT pointed out a few times, these status menus are shortcuts.
You're correct in that you ask again, what Windicators are actually there for, and i see your point: it is not yet obvious ;)
I think the best way to look at it would be like this:
Every ordinary Desktop application has at least one status it might be interested in conveying, either persistently or at least consistently. And to make that possible, it is easy to imagine window-lived indicator menus. Then, there'd even be the possibility of interacting with the state or manipulating it via the status menu "contained" in that indicator.
I liked thoughts of collapsing the Windicators onto the system indicators when a Window is maximized, but considering the trend towards single document interfaces, i'd say Windicators could make a lot of sense especially on full screen Windows, if they were designed to appear Wingpanel-style and transparent above content.