unity-design team mailing list archive

[Remco <remco47@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 16:42, Conscious User <conscioususer@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Dani, though I agree that consistency is important, you should keep in
> mind that the two concepts involved here are semantically different. In
> the messaging menu the arrow means "running" while in the me menu the
> point means "selected".
>
> The most important difference between the two is that *more than one*
> app can be running, while *only one* status can be selected.
>
> Using the same symbol might give the impression that they are
> conceptually the same thing, which is not a good idea, IMO.
>
> Furthermore, I disagree that the arrow "doesn't make sense". It is the
> universal symbol for "playing" in media players, so it kinda fits with
> the concept of "running". I won't say it's the best choice possible, but
> I have no qualms with it either.

There is one problem with the 'playing arrow', in that it conceptually
only makes sense to play one thing at a time. An arrow gives me a
strong impression of a single item that is selected and is going
through some sequence right now. For example, in the Totem playlist an
arrow means: "this item is playing right now".

Plus, I think we can simplify this interface. Is it really important
to know which of those applications is running right now? What are the
use cases for knowing which of the messaging applications is running?

For me personally, the only use case is that those applications
maintain presence information and they notify for new messages. If one
of those applications is closed, and I am Online according to the Me
Menu, I still don't maintain presence in that application, or get
notified of new messages. That's inconsistent. It forces the user to
know the difference between having an application open, and 'being
online'. I'd say, that as soon as I change my status to Online, then I
want all my messaging applications to maintain my Online presence and
notify me of messages.

This can be done in two ways: Either Ubuntu starts all the
applications whenever you go Online, so the arrow becomes unnecessary.
Or presence and message notification is split out from Empathy,
Evolution and Gwibber, and turned into a daemon. Then the arrow also
becomes unnecessary, because it's not important anymore which apps are
open, except to be able to switch to them, as any other window in the
Window List applet.

I see that Empathy is already linked in this way to the presence
status of the Me Menu. In the current version, setting you status is
impossible if you don't first start Empathy. In earlier versions,
Empathy would get started as soon as you set your status to Online. If
the other applications could do the same, I don't see a need for an
arrow.

-- 
Remco