[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[Ayatana] [Unity Launcher] Mouse hover, click, and active visual states



Hello,

Button states (mouse hovered, clicked, active, and normal) communicate to the user what responses are associated to buttons. The Unity Launcher is one of the elements of the Unity desktop that will get the most mouse interactions and very much deserves visual representation of button states.

This is especially relevant for the app icons and the Ubuntu button (whatever their proper names are). The app icons show feedback when hovered by showing a tooltip, which may or may not be a clear enough effect so please assess this one. The other state that's currently covered is "selected," which is shown by an arrow.

Keyboard-focus has a nice selection highlight, which can be used for other purposes like mouse hover. They're very similar anyway. However, keyboard-focus could also use the tooltip that tells the user the name of the app he's currently focusing on. Maybe, both hover and keyboard-focus can use the combination of highlight and tooltip.

There are also missing button states like when an app icon is clicked and when doing "Scale" for one app. On OS X, clicking an app icon on the dock will make the icon dark and "Scale" for one app will make all other app icons dark. We don't have to do it the way OS X does it, but there should be visual representations of these states.

It could be too late for Natty, but it would be nice if some button states can have the right feedback in time for 11.04.

--
Regards,
Allan
User Experience Designer
http://www.google.com/profiles/AllanCaeg#about
+63 918 948 2520