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Re: memenu and appmenu

 

> 1. If I want launch Empathy or Evolution, I can click on its icon in
> the message menu. But other application are in the standard GNOME
> application menu. So its a bit difficult for the user to understand
> why some applications are in a place and other application are in
> another place. But this is the minor issue and I can understand that
> the difference is because some applications are communication software
> (chat, social, mail, etc).

> 2. If I want open Empathy because I received a message, I must click
> on message menu. But if I want go offline, I must use the me menu. So
> we have two places to control the same program. Often I click on
> message menu searching a button to 'turn off' Empathy after I received
> some messages in that menu. But the switch is in another menu, far
> from it.

My two cents: I'm not particularly bothered by neither of those. I
think the problem is that your thinking is application-based, while
the indicators are functionality-based.

The messaging menu is a place of receiving and sending messages. For
receiving messages, you call the adequate window of the adequate app.
Whether the app is already open or not should be irrelevant. So it's
not that the messaging menu is "another launcher", it is a place for
interacting with messaging apps, and this simply, incidentally,
happens to imply launching them first if necessary [*].

The me menu is a place for controlling your social status. Whether
it is on Empathy, Pidgin or Gwibber should be irrelevant [**].

You are fighting against muscle memory, from the time when you used
the tray icon, and interpreting your actions as "two Empathy
actions" (which are related and belong to the same menu) instead
of "one messaging action" and "one social status action" (which
are not necessarily related and not necessarily belong to the
same menu).

I change my status much more than I message, and a lot of people
I know who do the exact opposite. The two sets of actions are
usually very asymmetric, and the separation makes sense to me.

[*] Of course, the experience is not completely smooth due to
issues like startup time, but we should help ironing those out
instead of working around them by giving up on ideas that
make sense :)

[**] Generally speaking, the concept of status itself is
something that goes beyond instant messaging.





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