Re: libnotify and the HIG

["David Trowbridge" <trowbrds gmail com>]

Also consider what it would be like with 3 or 4 of those bubbles all
over the screen; this is not an uncommon experience with some other
notification systems, and it feels a bit like whack-a-mole.  One of
the things that struck me as nice about the n-d design was that most
notifications popped up in a predictable location.

Just because an application has a visible presence on the screen
doesn't mean it has to be used as an anchor point;  I remember seeing
in a mock-up somewhere a "disk full" notification pointing at the
computer icon on the desktop!

Your song notification would be just as meaningful, if not more, in
the lower right, with a "now playing" label and the muine bass clef
icon.  The amount of response elicited by that notification is pretty
limited, since it's mostly informational.  Add a "next song" action
and you'll probably cover most of the interaction that would result
from it.

Icons, text and actions can all serve to associate a notification with
the application or data it's about.  For things like "new song
playing" or "power unplugged," the important thing isn't the icon on
the screen, it's the music coming out of the speakers or the plug
which just came loose on the back of the laptop.

Anchored notifications have their place, but please consider whether
it's really useful to do it.

-David

On 4/19/06, Wouter Bolsterlee <uws+gnome xs4all nl> wrote:
> På Sun, Apr 16, 2006 at 11:58:17AM +0100, Mike Hearn skrev:
> > I can't think of any compelling reason why you would need to associate a
> > power management notification with some widget on screen, because it's not
> > really to do with anything on screen specifically. It's just "computer
> > stuff".
>
> Being able to point notifications at widgets is a great feature that should
> not be underrated. Consider [1] and imagine the same bubble appearing at a
> random location on your screen without any clue what it belongs too.
>
>   mvrgr, Wouter
>
> [1] http://uwstopia.nl/blog/2006/03/muine-notifications
> --
> :wq                                                       mail uws xs4all nl
>                                                       web http://uwstopia.nl
>
> i wondered what went wrong      -- and you will know us by the trail of dead
>
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux)
>
> iD8DBQFERh4EP7QTTiUKY+sRAjnFAJoCZO43dKemKDXKVWIQjfzKAT2PywCaAubZ
> ymZXjn+r83sU3cTZh2VaoFY=
> =PFti
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> desktop-devel-list mailing list
> desktop-devel-list gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list
>
>