unity-design team mailing list archive

[Charlie Kravetz <cjk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 6 Jul 2009 12:15:33 +0530
Praveen <tgpraveen89@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I recently read the karmic-notify-osd proposal and it has a section
> for what is to done when applications are fullscreen, it currently
> states that non-critical bubbles must be suppressed.
> Are notifications from pidgin/empathy considered critical or
> non-critical?
> 
> I think that the right way of dealing with fullscreen applications is
> to not suppress notifications by default. instead providing a global
> do-not-disturb mode is more useful as whatever we do we may never
> guess the intentions of the user.
> 
> Eg.1. Say i am waiting for a IM from my friend, and while waiting i
> decide to watch a movie. Then if by default i don't get notified
> while i am watching the movie in fullscreen and the movie goes on for
> 2 hours, then this is undesirable. Also IMs are meant to be acted
> upon instantly. With email this gets more complicated. Some people
> with some emails want to reply immediately and would like to be
> notified. Some people get 100's of email and possibly reply only once
> a day to emails.
> 
> 2. I set a reminder in evolution for an event to occur after 1 hour
> and watch some documentary. I certainly dont want to miss the
> reminder.
> 
> 3.I might be watching a movie while i wait for a torrent to finish
> downloading. In this case notification for loss of net connection is
> important,but in other cases it might not be.
> 
> So i suggest guessing what notifications user wants or doesn't want in
> fullscreen is not really possible. Hence by *default* they must be *
> displayed* in fullscreen and a *do-not-disturb mode along with the
> system indicator+message indicator *should be  a option to be set.
> 
> What do others think on this?

I think the option to display or turn off should always be present.
However, there should also be easy ways to change fonts and colors of
notifications. Visual impairments can make it difficult/impossible to
see the text. This is not a design team decision they should be making,
but user decisions when necessary. 

The fewer choices we allow, the more difficult we make Ubuntu to use by
all people. We have pretty much told users if you want accessibility,
go somewhere else. We don't really think you need choices here.

-- 
Charlie Kravetz 
Linux Registered User Number 425914          [http://counter.li.org/]
Never let anyone steal your DREAM.           [http://keepingdreams.com]