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Fwd: Message Indicator: Listing apps in menu even if they are not on

 

Apparently I forgot to include the mailing list.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Celeste Lyn Paul <celeste@xxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 9:15 AM
Subject: Re: [Ayatana] Message Indicator: Listing apps in menu even if
they are not on
To: mac_v <drkvi-a@xxxxxxxxx>


On Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 5:03 PM, mac_v<drkvi-a@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Wed, 2009-09-02 at 16:14 -0400, Celeste Lyn Paul wrote:
...
>> I should only be going to the MI when I have messages, and
>> not when I do not. The MI is only relevant when I have messages which
>> occur of applications which are running and have given me messages, or
>> might have closed with unread messages. Any application which does not
>> have a message is irrelevant to the MI.
>>
>
> Its really not clear why you think this is not a good feature?
> Is it a personal preference, you dont like them there ? or is this
> violating some interface design principle? [Just curious , since you are
> an interface designer,question not meant to be rude :) ]

Purely principle. It's doing things outside the realm of the goal of
being a menu/indicator for new messages. Ayatana's philosophy has been
based on keeping it simple, yet additional functionality which isn't
related to the purpose of the object is being added to the design.

> This option to launch and view all messaging apps in one location is
> actually quite a nice feature.
> To me , its like "Everything related to messaging resides here, you can
> start it from here, see any new events here ... , you dont have to look
> anywhere else."

Is that the purpose of the MI though? To be the one-stop-shop for
*all* messaging issues? I'm under the impression that it is only
supposed to handle incoming and missed messages, *not* be a messaging
dashboard. If it *is* a messaging "dashboard" then the documentation
really needs to be updated and the design revisited to make sure it
supports this new purpose. The original purpose was the replace
notification icons and the messages the icons were indicating, not
replace all message-based applications for a new messaging
environment.

~ Celeste

--
Celeste Lyn Paul
KDE Usability Project
KDE e.V. Board of Directors
www.kde.org



-- 
Celeste Lyn Paul
KDE Usability Project
KDE e.V. Board of Directors
www.kde.org



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