unity-design team mailing list archive

[Michael Jonker <citizen.jonker@xxxxxxxxx>]

My point is not about wanting "just to see what is below". It is about
the notification (as well advanced as it is) being obtrusive and in the
way for a wide variety of use cases, not just mine.

You make a good point:

"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."

In this case a faded, transparent notification makes sense. It can go
opaque when the users mouse departs from that area.

What does not make sense to me:

A notification appears (the mouse cursor is not below the notification).
The user is now notified. When they move their mouse to that area (bear
in mind that they are 'notified' and have no further use for the
graphic) it once again fades away and reappears when the cursor departs.
This, irritatingly hangs around for about 5 seconds.

I know! I am notified! Why are you hanging about cluttering my screen?

In my opinion (unless the notification does something like launching the
relevant app or is dismiss-able by clicking on x) it should simply
vanish when the user moves their mouse cursor over it. 
 

On Thu, 2010-09-16 at 13:47 +0200, Conscious User wrote:
> > 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.
> 
> 
> 
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