unity-design team mailing list archive

["appi2012@xxxxxxxxx" <appi2012@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 12:51 PM, Carl Simpson <cwd.simpson@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> My concern is that the functionality of changing the volume of Banshee
> moves about quite a bit.  It does this in two ways:
> 1)  It moves from place to place in the interface- namely between the panel
> and the window decoration of Banshee.
> 2)  When in Banshee's window decoration it literally changes place on the
> screen.
> This will be true of all system-relevant window indicators.
>
> Is such a degree of movement of functionality acceptable?
>

+1, this is too much movement and confusion - users should always find what
they want where they look. Therefore, having the presence of a window volume
control in the sound menu depend on external factors is a design mistake -
out of habit, the user will look there, only to find that it's not there.

What I suggest is to have system-related windicators always be present in
the panel, and only have a duplicate shown in the window border if it's not
maximized. Although this does duplicate functionality, I feel that the
problem this causes are less than the problem caused by the moving of
functionality.

Now that I think about it, I see little need for windicators - they offer
little benefits, and pose many design problems. :/