unity-design team mailing list archive

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

On Sun, Aug 28, 2011 at 06:50, Jo-Erlend Schinstad <
joerlend.schinstad@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> When the dash is displayed, the panel is semi transparent and the
> indicators are
> still visible. It looks great, but I think there is room for
> improvement.


+1


> I think the "passive" indicators should be less visible and if there are
> any
> indications, then
> those should be made more visible.


that's good thinking, because indicators are meant to indicate, not to "hang
around uselessly".
On the other hand, the proper name is "Indicator Menus", so some rethinking
of the concept might become necessary at some point.
I think it is safe to look at two seperate entities here: the indicator and
the indicator menu.
Indicator menus should be child-elements of their indicators.
What an indicator menu contains should be driven by what the indicator
indicates.
If the indicator has nothing new to indicate, the indicator menu will be
equally dormant.
When the indicator is hidden, the indicator menu should be - as a
consequence - hidden, too.

What doesn't belong into an indicator in my opinion is application launchers
for stuff like e.g. "contact list" or "banshee":
an application is not something i want to launch, i want it to simply "take
place" aka "happen" as soon as i attempt to interact or view content best
handled through that application.
So re-thinking the concept of what "application" really means might also
contribute here..


The clock should be more visible all the time.
>

why is that? i could agree, but i couldn't say why exactly..


> I see no real reason to use the indicator menus while the dash is
> displayed, so
> I think clicking on one should fade out the dash. If it could be made
> so that the menu for the indicator you've clicked is faded in
> simultaneously, I think that
> would be a nice effect.
>

this one i can't confirm. To me, the Dash is the heart of Unity, it should
be the default design and look of unity, when i'm currently not using any
"app".
If i want to view my desktop, it should be available via a single button in
the launcher.
If i want to view anything else, it should respectively be available through
either the launcher or the Dash itself.. but i don't like the fact that the
indicator menus don't work in Unity's most characteristic place. They should
work in the dash, there they should even shine much more!