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[Bug 1363015] Re: App icons require shaping at every callsite

 

If a usability researcher saw eight users making the same kind of
mistake when using an Ubuntu phone, the researcher might make a
suggestion for how to fix the design flaw, but finding the best solution
would be the platform design team's responsibility. Here, I've given you
eight examples of engineers making the same kind of mistake when using
the APIs. I've made one suggestion of how to fix the design flaw, but
finding the best solution is the SDK team's responsibility.

** Changed in: ubuntu-ui-toolkit (Ubuntu)
       Status: Incomplete => New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1363015

Title:
  App icons require shaping at every callsite

Status in “notify-osd” package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in “ubuntu-ui-toolkit” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  In list items, showing an app icon in the correct Ubuntu shape requires shaping it when you are using it: ListItem.Standard{IconFrame: True}.
  <http://developer.ubuntu.com/api/qml/sdk-14.04/Ubuntu.Components.ListItems.Standard/#iconFrame-prop>

  That property is set to "True" by default, but it's not obvious why it
  should be, and list items aren't the only place that app icons get
  used.

  The result is that several times now, app updates have ended up without the appropriate frame:
  - in the System Settings "Updates" list (bug 1354478)
  - in the "Notifications" screen
  - in the Launcher the frame is unintentionally different (bug 1332119).

  Conversely, non-app icons have ended up *with* the frame by mistake:
  - "Display language" (bug 1288866)
  - "Orientation Lock" (bug 1365450)
  - Ubuntu updates (bug 1367136).

  In notification bubbles, the opposite applies -- you have to set a hint to use an *unshaped* icon: notify_notification_set_hint_string(m_notification, "x-canonical-non-shaped-icon", "true").
  <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/Notifications#Elements_of_a_Notification>

  Predictably, this has resulted in cases of icons having frames when they shouldn't:
  - Wi-Fi network authentication (bug 1346904)
  - alarms (bug 1346925)
  - Remove Account (bug 1350282).

  On the API design quality scale, both of these are roughly "Read the
  implementation and you'll get it right." <http://sweng.the-
  davies.net/Home/rustys-api-design-manifesto> Worse, they have opposite
  defaults.

  I suggest that the toolkit move all the way up to "It's impossible to
  get wrong", by always shaping an icon when it is an app icon, and
  never otherwise. Whether an icon is an app icon could (I assume) be
  detected by its path.

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References