Re: application indicators

[Dylan McCall <dylanmccall gmail com>]

> > If it hasn't been discussed, maybe worth some pondering, and if it has
> > in recent history, I for one would love to know the verdict :)
> 
> I don't think I've discussed it with regards to Application Indicators,
> but the issue that I've always had with emblems is that they look
> "bolted on."  So overall, the design looks sloppy even if both the icon
> and the emblem look nice on their own.  In theory, this is solvable, but
> I've never seen a solution that looked good and seemed less complex than
> just drawing all the icons that were needed.
> 
> It could be that no one has done it right.  Do you know of an
> implementation that you feel did a really good job on this?
> 
> 		--Ted
> 

Hi Ted,

My favourite example right now is Google Chrome's Badges interface for
browser action extensions. Extensions control the colour of the badge
and the text in it (up to three characters), and that is all.

Chrome places that badge to the lower right corner of the extension's
toolbar icon. Visually it feels rather clean (in my opinion) because
there is a lot of white space around each extension icon. So, the badge
barely overlaps the icon and mostly occupies space that was empty.

Of course, they have the advantage that it's all shiny new stuff so
there is a single set of guidelines for how toolbar icons should look.


Dylan