unity-design team mailing list archive

[Frederik Nnaji <frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 04/20/2010 10:42 AM, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
> > A few design features that I have in mind (possibly conflicting from
> > the specs in the wiki) :
> >
> > 1.) Stacking, that'd make the bubbles dock downwards as they are
> > initiated and start to stack up as the bubble times finish away.
> >      
> The idea is that a bubble should stay on screen long enough for you to
> read it. If two or more bubbles were on screen at once, you'd have only
> half the time to read each. We could compensate for that by making them
> both stick around twice as long -- but that would mean the more bubbles
> arrived at once, the more annoying each of them would be.
>    

as in the thread on sound-themes, here's still the option of making 
duration and color dynamic:
i.e. a (complex) function of mode, type, urgency and progress of the 
phenomenon i'm being notified about.

on another note:
what's most disturbing to anybody i discussed our bubbles with, is the 
absence of a simple way to suppress or dismiss them. what's with that? i 
don't necessarily need a configuration utility or a seperate section 
within the appearance settings.. an ON/OFF button would suffice for my 
desktop usage..

let me also point out, that interaction with bubbles is so often 
mentioned, because the users have no other way of entering the 
conversation they are being alarmed about.
with about 30% - 50% netbook users around me in our monthly meetings, a 
great number of us is faced with the same problems: small displays of 
usually 10" size, trackpad (uncomfortable for the little messaging 
menu), panels on autohide, messaging menu unreachable and out of sight / 
reach, only way to know there's a new message waiting is by the window 
list, that is, if THAT panel is not also already on autohide.

now thanks a lot for informative bubbles, but how will they address 
these issues, if i have no way of using e.g. incoming-chat-message 
notifications interactively?

i was reminded of the importance of seperating information and 
interaction in the design of a UI.
might this thumb-law of UI design deserve more attention in respect to 
our bubbles?

last but not least, i can imagine 3 levels of bubble-annoyance ;) :
*heavy - available, chatty, typing and moving the mouse
longest period reasonable, maximum obtrusiveness, maximum interactivity 
e.g. dismiss on click, open chat bubbles on gesture, high opacity and/or 
alerting bgcolor

*medium - away, extended away, afk etc..
medium display period of bubbles, dismissal on gesture, medium opacity 
and/or less alerting bgcolor

*heavy - busy, N/A, do not disturb
shortest tolerable display period, minimal intrusion, dismiss on heavy 
keyboard/mouse activity, low opacity and/or grey background

is this absolute nonesense, or could one consider it a direction to 
think about?