unity-design team mailing list archive

[Brian Curtis <briancurtis.wx@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 4:35 AM, Mark Shuttleworth <mark@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> The situation I would want to avoid is actually the one you describe, where
> the "normal" situation is for people to have the "green dot" and to wait
> till they get a "red dot". In essence, that would mean that the distinction
> between "no dot" and "green dot" is marginal, and it would devalue the green
> dot entirely.
>
> The *experience* we want to create is that "a dot creates a sense of urgency
> to act". There should definitely be some entries in the list which DO NOT
> create a green dot (currently, recent buddy logins cause the dot to appear,
> and they shouldn't). So, by this line of thinking, I would prefer for the
> options to be  "no dot" or "green dot", and I'm happy for apps to decide
> whether or not they do this (and for that to be based on user preferences).
> For apps in main, specifically IM and email, we would probably take a fairly
> tight view of "what should create the dot".

This is indeed a challenging idea.  After some thought here is the
picture I can see in my head:

I'm sitting in my desk chair and an e-mail arrives for me.  The
indicator applet dot appears starting as yellow, signifying to me that
I have something thats not high priority but requires an action at
some point and I have not looked at it yet.  I click the indicator
applet find out its not important and do nothing, after clicking out
of the indicator applet it turns green signifying to me that theres
something I have not performed an action on but have already looked at
and chosen to ignore for the time being.  The yellow to green would
apply to instant messages (gwibber, etc...) as well.

When there is a system notification, lets say Update-Manager has some
updates pending, then the indicator applet dot turns red signifying
theres something that needs my urgent attention, if I (the user)
decides to wait on the updates, after I click in and out of the
indicator applet it turns green once again to signify that I still
have actions to perform but have already look at them and chosen to
ignore them for the time being.  If the system event is urgent enough
you may decide to flash the icon with the red dot hoping that the
flashing icon gains the users attention to the urgency.

I think this keeps an urgency to the green dot and keeps it apart from
no dot at all, and still gives an importance to the yellow and red
dots as well as keeping them separate from each other.  I also agree
that the green dot showing up when a buddy signs in/out or goes
idle/away etc... is evil and a pop-up bubble should be sufficient
enough for the user.

Thanks for reading.
~Brian C.