unity-design team mailing list archive

[Jamu Kakar <jkakar@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 8:37 AM, Mark Shuttleworth <mark@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Here's the problem. Most users don't discover the dodging by moving a window
> till it touches the launcher. They first encounter it when they maximise a
> window. So, they login to the desktop. Good. They start an app. Good. Then
> they maximise a window, and the launcher "disappears". To these users, the
> behaviour is deeply uncomfortable, random. And these are in fact the
> majority of users.

Yeah, I've seen that happen to my friends and family too, so I've
learnt to set the launcher to always-visible when I install Ubuntu for
others and then everyone is happy.  Another benefit of always-visible
is that the small indicators are always visible, which makes them more
useful.

> It also turns out that users who can work with dodging launchers can also
> work perfectly well with launchers which always hide when not used.

There's another issue with dodge-windows, that I personally find very
annoying, which is that the launcher changes state when I move from
one workspace to another, when one has a maximised window and another
doesn't.  I found this behaviour quite distracting.  For example, I'd
switch from my maximised browser workspace to my non-maximised Empathy
worksapce to chat with someone and all of a sudden this thing would
slide out from the left.

> only usable option on smaller screens such as netbooks (always-hide is
> too confusing when first logging in, and never-hide takes too much
> space).
>
> We agree on both the facts, just not your conclusion :). Yes, always-hide is
> a poor starting point for new users. And yes, never-hide wastes space on
> small devices. But the current approach is clear at the start and
> accommodates efficient use of space for those who need it or prefer it.

Something I've taken to doing is dialing down the launcher icon size
to 32px.  This makes quite a difference on a small screen for at least
two reasons:

- It doesn't take up as much horizontal space.
- You can fit more icons in the visible vertical space.

That combined with always-visible makes it quite usable on a netbook.
You can change the launcher icon size in CCSM.  I hope that doesn't go
away too! ;)

Thanks,
J.