unity-design team mailing list archive

[Dmitrijs Ledkovs <dmitrij.ledkov@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Rodan, please join the team and subscribe to mailing list to follow
the discussion or watch via mailing list archive.

Keeping you in CC

On 14 June 2010 23:47, Rodan Bury <bury.rodan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> To entertain the user while he is waiting, I suggest to add a few nice
> words that strikes the imagination. A few interfaces made an asset of
> their long loading with such an user-friendly loading bar.
>
> It's pretty easy to implement, and it's real fun! Please check the
> following examples:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr4nGsVhkAQ
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QISeHGUkLB4
> http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/Bopitman99/436421
>
> Ergonomy is usually improved with efficiency and intuitiveness. However,
> several ergonomist now also recommends to make fun software, as it is a
> key factor in user experience. I'm sure most users would love to have
> such progress bars. Yours, Rodan


Definatly yes, and definatly no.

It is well suited to have informal features such as compiz, MeMenu
etc. But these ROFL-progressbars don't fit with Ubuntu's current brand
direction [1]. And remember that google's pacman doodle was mistaken
for a virus [2].

I like the idea but I really don't want to see "Ooops, spilt it" when
I'm backing up an archive of all of my family photos. This doesn't
describe operating system as reliable nor precise to me.

Tip of the day, similar to the ubiquity-slideshow might make sense.
But I'd rather see everything so fast in ubuntu that I never need to
stare at the progressbar and not be able to something else, e.g.
software centre is non-blocking UI even when it is installing stuff
you can do other things.

Also while I did find Pirate English on facebook hilarious, it is
really appropriate for purely entertainment platforms. But I do agree
that gnome/ubuntu should not be translated into pirate english [3].

To sum up the desktop can be made more entertaining (via better sounds
effects and even prettier theme [4], possible making progress bars
less solid colour) but professionalism still needs to be maintained.

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Brand
[2] https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/583931
[3] https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/rosetta/+question/68071
[4] design folks, yes mere mortals can never get enough =)