unity-design team mailing list archive

[Conscious User <conscioususer@xxxxxxx>]

> My point is that a x (close) button would dismiss this
> intrusion to my focussed work immediately - or - moving the notification
> to a position I can accept will give me the best of both worlds.

Best of both worlds for your particular use case, but the truth is:
neither option is fully ideal. A close/respond button creates problems
with accidental clicks (a bubble popping up exactly when you are
clicking in something below it), and there is the fact that it feels
wrong to get out of your workflow just to close a notification.

The current NotifyOSD bubbles follow this principle quite well with
respect to the case where you might need to interact with the mouse:
it simply fades away smoothly when you approximate the cursor and
gets out of the way. However, you are absolutely correct when you
say that the bubbles get in the away when you need to *just see*
what is below them, not interact with. Then you need to put the
mouse over them to make them fade, which is almost the same thing
as closing.

So, the question to the Ayatana designers is: how to cover this case
of "just wanting to see what is below" satisfactorily? I remember
hearing that NotifyOSD will be getting some love for Natty, so I'm
particularly curious about it.