unity-design team mailing list archive

[Mario Vukelic <mario.vukelic@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

[Note: I have sent this email to ubuntu-devel because I thought the
ayatana list is intended only for discussions about notification and
presence projects and the like. It's stuck in the moderation queue there
though and I see now that people discuss the window controls here]

Hi,

Sorry for (re?)opening this can of worms. I have searched and couldn't
find a discussion of this particular question, so I feel obliged to
point out a possible collision with Gnome 3's UI in case it was missed
somehow.

Disclaimer: I don't have strong feelings about either control placement
and think that Lucid looks fantastic.

There is this file "GNOME Shell - A design for a personal integrated
digital work environment" at
http://www.gnome.org/~mccann/shell/design/GNOME_Shell-20091114.pdf which
seems to be the most comprehensive and up-to-date document about the
design goals of Gnome 3. On page 6, you can find the considerations I'm
quoting below. 

Note in the second paragraph how the hot corner of the screen assumes
that the windows' top-left corner is free of other items: "Window
caption controls are located on the opposite (right-hand) side". I
realize that Lucid's window controls are not flush-left and even in a
maximized window would not unconditionally interfere with a top-left hot
corner. Still, the controls would be pretty close and certainly would
not exactly help avoiding confusion. At the least they are not where
Gnome 3 apparently will assume them to be.

'Hot corner

The upper left corner of the Activities Item and the screen should
behave as a "hot corner." Moving the pointer into this area should
automatically activate the Activies Item. This offers a few advantages:
      * Allows for quickly accessing functionality
      * Eliminates need to aim and click on target button
      * May be perceived as more efficient by users
      * Obviates the need for "dwell click" for input devices without
        button click functionality (eg. head/eye tracking pointers)
      * May facilitate drag-and-drop into the Overview (if necessary)

Unlike many other forms of hot corners or edges this will likely not be
subject to inadvertent triggering for a few reasons:
      * The corner in which it resides is already "owned" by a control
        for identical functionality
      * Window caption controls are located on the opposite (right-hand)
        side

Once the Activities Overview has been triggered using the hot-corner,
the pointer should have to move at least 5 pixels before the corner can
be triggered again. Similarly, clicks on the Activities Item should be
ignored for a short time after the hot-corner is activated. These
are necessary in order to "de-bounce" activations.' 


Otherwise, thanks for a job IMHO extremely well done with Lucid's
design.

Mario