unity-design team mailing list archive

[Omar B. <estelar57@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

This mockup shows off a bubble with a tail:

http://crhis22.deviantart.com/art/Ubuntu-Mockup-120235202

I do believe people would notice it a lot more, they make it more obvious where the notification is coming from.

Studies do show that is hard for humans to pay attention to more than one thing at a time.

but not all bubbles need a tail.

and some do need to be more persistent.

In windows i think they go into a queue and use a priority system, but am not totally sure.


> Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:41:33 +0000
> From: mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> To: ayatana@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [Ayatana] Clippy has noticed you've been trying to click on	notifications...
> 
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> Evan Huus wrote on 03/12/11 15:43:
> > ...
> > 
> > Currently when an event occurs (for example, someone says something
> > in a minimized empathy chat), a notification pops up and the
> > messaging indicator turns blue. They happen at the same time, but
> > the events don't appear related. Technically they are two
> > components of the same event, but they appear on two different, not
> > visibly related UI elements as two separate events. This is made
> > even worse if the notification is delayed because it is queued
> > behind other notifications. In that case the indicator turns blue
> > well before the notification appears, so the user has no idea which
> > notification the blue indicator is associated with.
> > 
> > Additionally, the change of colour in the indicator is not 
> > particularly noticeable. Anecdotally I have found that people
> > either don't notice it at all, or ignore it because they don't know
> > what it means (was there a usability study on this? I remember one,
> > but couldn't find it any more...)
> 
> 
> Yes. From
> <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2011-April/032988.html>:
> "Only 2/6 noticed an XChat Gnome notification, despite (1) a
> notification bubble appearing, (2) the Ubuntu button going blue, (3)
> the messaging menu envelope going blue, and (4) an emblem appearing on
> XChat Gnome's launcher."
> 
> (In 11.10, fewer things change: the Ubuntu button no longer goes blue.)
> 
> > That's the problem. There are a couple of possible solutions, but 
> > here's one that makes the most sense to me:
> > 
> > - Link notifications to indicators via a speech-bubble-like tail. 
> > Volume change notifications get linked to the sound indicator,
> > empathy notifications get linked to the messaging indicator, etc.
> > 
> > I believe that just this change on its own will help
> > significantly. Notifications are transient, so people can't
> > interact with them, but with this change the notifications are at
> > least *pointing* to something interactive. They still don't require
> > interaction (which was one of the original design goals I agree
> > with) but they make it obvious how. This should reduce the
> > frustration felt by users who are used to interacting with
> > notifications directly on other operating systems.
> 
> 
> Three problems there.
> 
> Most importantly, in the 11.04 test, people didn't see the bubble
> either. Would a bubble with a tail be much more noticable than one
> without a tail?
> 
> Second, giving Ubuntu notification bubbles tails would make them look
> more like Windows notification balloons ... which are clickable. :-)
> 
> Third, what would happen when there were two or more bubbles on screen
> at once? Would the tail of the second obscure the first?
> 
> > ...
> > 
> > I personally think the above change would be sufficient, but we
> > have other options as well:
> > 
> > - Add a glow effect and a *very* gentle pulse to active (blue) 
> > indicators. This will make them slightly more obvious and 
> > interactive-looking than currently. We'll have to be careful not
> > to make them too distracting, though.
> > 
> > - Change the notification animation to be a magic-lamp like expand
> > and collapse into the appropriate indicator. Could be used instead
> > of or in addition to the speech-bubble-tail. I expect this would
> > end up being too active/busy, but you never know.
> > 
> > ...
> 
> 
> Perhaps when battery is critically low, the battery icon should blink
> constantly even once you've dismissed the warning alert.
> 
> - -- 
> mpt
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