unity-design team mailing list archive

[Conscious User <conscioususer@xxxxxxx>]

> 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".

That varies from user to user, but overall I agree. I just don't have
a better suggestion right now. :) Maybe checkboxes? Ugly, but clearer.

> 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?

Not knowing if the application is running was a major complaint about
the previous versions, reported several times if I remember correctly.
Basically, the user should not be misled into thinking that he will
receive notifications for new messages if the application is actually
closed and thus he will never receive anything.

> 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.

The problem is that everything you said above does not apply to
anything other than IM, at least not for the moment. There's no
such thing as "being online" for mail and microblogging.

> 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 certainly have moments when only a subset of the apps are
open, and I don't think I am alone in this.

> 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.

At least in the current specification, I don't think the status
in the MeMenu were intended for anything other than IM.