ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Gilbert Röhrbein <payload@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 15.03.2013 19:57, Michał Sawicz wrote:
> We need to come up with a list of factors based on which we decide which
> layout, behaviour, user experience is applied.

Can we make a brainstorm for this on something else than a mailing list? 
A wiki or etherpad?

> * what mode was requested (touch, PC, 10', ?)
> * what input methods are available (pointer, touch, key, camera?)
> * component dimensions
> * which stage is the app running in
> * device form factor
> ...
> We need many more use cases to verify whether that approach would work,
> so bring them on!
>
> Maybe there are other factors to take into account? Or maybe you have
> ideas about a completely different approach to this?
> ...
> Comments, rants, all feedback welcome :)

I think of guidelines to enable app designers to be aware of important 
factors in the lifetime of an app, so that they are concerned of them. 
And also I think of a system to enable developers to respond to notable 
changes of the factors they are concerned of.

This would be helpful for the fine grained app specific responsiveness. 
For example changing layout of some buttons depending if the device is 
held and used by the left or right hand. (Very fancy I think :) )
The guidelines would make you aware of this problem and some common 
solutions. The system analyses touch events and "device phonyness" and 
provides a Qt signal and a getter for the very entry in the guidelines.
But also for more conventional use cases like device form factor, it 
would be nice, I think :)

More coarse grained, OS enforced responsiveness is, I believe, much more 
involved. It needs decisions on what the OS is doing, running in default 
settings. There are some threads and posts relating to "make Ubuntu more 
tablet friendly" and such. Examples would be changing window decoration, 
like size of window close buttons, or scrolling direction.

As I said that I strongly propose that, you should distinguish between 
this app specific responsiveness and OS enforced responsiveness. I also 
want to propose to make guidelines for the topic of responsiveness and 
to expose this guidelines to developers in form of signals and getters :)

What do you think of these three points?

	Gilbert