unity-design team mailing list archive

["frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx" <frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi MPT,

On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 11:07, Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

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> fain182 wrote on 12/10/10 09:53:
> >
> >> They don't have the same effect. The Rhythmbox item focuses Rhythmbox.
> >> The track data item copies the track data to the clipboard.
> >
> > This is undiscoverable..
>
> The effect of the Rhythmbox item should be obvious -- but, as I said in
> my reply to Ersin Akinci, may not be at the moment because of the
> non-application icon.
>

artist: Tha Dogg Pound
title: Smooth
album: Dogg Food

oops.. i just pressed Paste, but i thought my clipboard was holding a URL
that i searched for just now which i wanted to paste in here..
hmm...


I agree that the effect of the track data item is pretty undiscoverable.
> I'd love to see suggestions for that.
>

i would have expected this hidden treasure to include the album art now..


> > There is no way to tell the user the effect of his click? a
> > notification bubble showed after the click? it would be annoying but
> > maybe better than no feedback at all..
>
> That's a separate issue, because feedback on what has happened is
> necessarily too late to tell you what will happen. I think any feedback
> that something has been copied to the clipboard should be universal: it
> should work the same way for an image region in Gimp, or a Web link in
> Ubuntu Software Center, as it does for the track data here.
>
> A couple of examples that might be inspirational:
> *   Microsoft Office 98 for Mac (and maybe later versions, I don't know)
>    played a small sound effect whenever anything was copied.
>

yeah, that would be elegant ;)

To help with that a bit:
* keep System Sounds audible at a constant volume level, independent of the
main volume slider in the Sound Menu
* keep System Sounds affected by the global Mute button in the Sound Menu


> *   If there was a clipboard status menu, that could blink momentarily
>    whenever something new was copied.
>

I would keep it lit, especially when something is being moved (cut & paste |
CTRL+X).
To make it blink momentarily doesn't indicate state correctly, it indicates
action.
I think the Edit menu should rather indicate state, it can still blink once
while CTRL+C is pressed, but reflecting the state of its content gives the
Edit menu sense imo.


>
> I think this kind of feedback might be what frederik.nnaji was talking
> about in the "clipboard information in context menu" thread, though I
> didn't really understand it.
>

ooops yeah i mixed improvised prose with formal language.. clearly:
A momentarily highlighted *Edit* is a good way to make ALL clipboard
operation more discoverable.
An *Edit *with a symbolic icon for copy next to it also could help.