unity-design team mailing list archive

[Conscious User <conscioususer@xxxxxxx>]

>         New panel applets were introduced to the newer versions of
>         Ubuntu. They improved the experience, because of their
>         features, but they also created some inconsistencies in the
>         GNOME Panel. If I remember correctly, it used to be that only
>         the Menu Bar had associated elements (Applications, Places,
>         and System buttons). With the new Indicator Applet and
>         Indicator Applet Session, some icons on the right end of the
>         top panel behave differently. 
>         
>         
>         There is now a lack of harmony, which I described
>         here http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/9033/ayatanapanelissue.png . To fix this issue, we can change the way things are rendered, change their positioning, tweak how they behave, etc.
>         
>         
>         What are your thoughts?
> 
> 
> This separation is addressed in the fact that they are getting rid of
> the notification area, moving all icons to the indicator applet. The
> clock applet has a new version in the works as well.


Yes, indicator-datetime is coming, but the death of the notification
area depends on larger adoption of libappindicator and this can take
a very long time, and several Ubuntu releases.

Until it happens, separating the notification area more blatantly,
like it's being proposed for Gnome (they are doing experiments
with moving non-system icons to the bottom right corner), might
be a good idea.

If I remember correctly, there was a design principle stating
that if things are different, make them very different because
small differences look like mistakes. That sounds like the
issues Allan is pointing: because the things in the corner *look*
like they have similar behavior, it is frustrating for the
user discovering that they do *not*.