unity-design team mailing list archive

[Tyler Brainerd <tylerbrainerd@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 4:19 AM, Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

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> Tyler Brainerd wrote on 12/05/10 02:48:
> >
> > Looking at the mockups for the new SoundMenu design
> > <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoundMenu>, which looks great, my one concern
> > is for consistency. Right now, with all the new applets, we have a
> > myriad of inconsistent behavior, and this will only worsen as we make
> > things more complicated. For instance, in the mockups and in current
> > use, we have toggles that, in some cases, add a left hand margin check
> > mark, such as with the play button in rhythmbox applet, and in others,
> > it changes the text, like in the current sound applet. I say get rid of
> > the check mark, and make it change between play/pause, but looking at
> > the mockups, this will only get worse.
>
> Whether a menu item should change its text, or be a checkmark item, is a
> more nuanced issue than the Gnome HIG lets on. I've written previously
> about the case of the sound menu's "Mute"/"Unmute" item.
> <http://launchpad.net/bugs/538316> As for Rhythmbox, I don't know of
> anyone outside of Gnome who thinks it's a good idea for it to have a
> "Play" checkmark item instead of "Play"/"Pause".
>
> >                                        Can we please discuss specific
> > ruling functions in these applets so we don't have a full on widget on
> > the panel?
>
> I don't know what you mean by a "ruling function". Can you elaborate?
>
> >            Currently, we only have Vertical layered controls. Each
> > vertical row contains one function, and ought to be indicated in
> > consistent ways (i.e., the triangles for running programs, the dots for
> > status, the check for play/pause, sometimes the icon changes...) and I
> > think its going to mess up that consistency with adding horizontal
> > functions as well. part of the reason these applets are great is the
> > ability to use pretty fast keyboard shortcuts to control things, and
> > being the literally every single one so far has only vertical, lets not
> > add the horizontal (i'm referring specifically to the next and previous
> > buttons on either side of the play button).
>
> In the status menus, *most* elements will be vanilla vertical menu
> items. But standard menus have included occasional horizontal elements
> for decades -- from color swatch submenus in Amiga applications in the
> late 1980s, through to the Label section of the Mac Finder's "File" menu
> since 2003, and Empathy's "Insert Smiley" submenu in Ubuntu circa 2009.
>
> If there is any menu item that is not obviously accessible with the
> keyboard (either in the specification, or the implementation), please
> report a bug about it.
>
> > After the rows, we really need to get the indications cleaned up. Lets
> > make some firm decisions about what means 'This program is open!' what
> > means 'this feature is on/off' and what doesn't, in all the menus. The
> > mockups show no check marks, thats good. Get rid of all of them, unless
> > actual indicating is needed (like the status selector).
> >...
>
> Apart from Rhythmbox's "Play" item, do you know of any menu items that
> have checkmarks and shouldn't?
>
> - --
> Matthew Paul Thomas
> http://mpt.net.nz/
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Thanks for responding. Several of the areas that I had issue with their
consistency have actually been cleaned up a bit since I first wrote this.

My concern is not with the current state, but primarily with the planned,
future interface design. There doesn't seem to be clear cut rules about what
symbols represent what state or control option. I'm not saying there are
huge issues at present, but rather, there isn't clear, foundational rules
about how to design the applets. I just think it would be beneficial to
write out a set of clear rules to be followed about making selections,
representing current states, and all that stuff.

again, not so much to correct the current, but to lay out rules of
consistency for the future.