unity-design team mailing list archive

[Mark Shuttleworth <mark.shuttleworth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Stuart Langridge wrote:
> Am I missing something here? If Pidgin's not running then by definition
> I can't have any messages in it. Is the messaging menu just another
> applications menu but only containing apps which are capable of
> generating messages? That seems not all that useful to me, unless I've
> completely misunderstood the purpose of it.
>   
I'll go out on a limb and say that's because y ou are one of the special
and wonderful breed of people who know what's running on your computer.
You may even, like me, have your favourite ps incantation to reassure
you on the subject.

The idea the messaging-menu-launching capability is built on is that
users tend to go there to see if they have messages first, and if they
don't see anything, they don't know if it's because "the thing is not
running". Switching and launching are a blurred experience for many people.

So, while I well agree with the risks of having multiple places to
achieve something ("launch Quassel") I think this is worth exploring. We
need to look closely at the phrasing of "launch Quassel" in the menu, to
get to the heart of the matter ("Get onto IRC"), especially with the
*other* work ongoing to bring online services under a common
experiential umbrella. But it's worth trying this, cautiously and
tastefully, now.

> PS. I think this, on re-reading, might be just my restating of Celeste's
> issue :-)
>   
No, I interpreted Celeste's concern to be about the "forced and
unbending" nature of the exposure in the menu, which I believe should be
addressed.

Mark

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