Re: ThreePointOne: Contacts

[Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com>]

On Mon, 2011-04-18 at 11:52 -0700, Travis Reitter wrote:

> On Mon, 2011-04-18 at 20:29 +0200, Johannes Schmid wrote:
 
> > While using GNOME 3.0 on my desktop now for a week I wanted to share my
> > thoughs on the UI. The problem in the current situation is that the
> > shell provides a nice chat integration but to start a new chat you have
> > to use the "Contact List" window of empathy which feels totally
> > out-of-place. It is also one of the windows you really don't want to see
> > in the overview.
> 
> Agreed. I'd like my general chat process to just be:
> 
> <Meta>, <start typing person's name>+<Enter>

By meta you mean the "windows key" thing?

> which is the same way I launch all my applications in Gnome Shell (and
> is one of the most compelling features of it, I think). Like launching
> programs, you would be able to pause to see the full results list and
> perform more-specific actions (such as selecting the exact account and
> contact you want to initiate the chat from and to, as Empathy lets you
> do now).

Yeah, this sounds like about the right thing. I'm thinking we could have
a new tab in addition to the windows and applications one listing
people, probably showing the online ones first, or at least making that
information prominent. Clicking on a person should let you easily send
mail, start a im conversation or send a file. Additionally these should
show up on the search results, and be possible to put in the dash.

> > What Daniel and Salamon mocked-up is certainly a nice start but I think
> > a dedicated window for it doesn't fit with the overall shell design
> > well.
> 
> I think it makes sense to have both. The shell search provider would
> focus on communicating with existing contacts (similar to launching
> programs), whereas the stand-alone program would be more focused on
> adding and managing contacts (which are much-rarer actions). And it
> still makes sense to have the communication buttons in the stand-alone
> program to make the use case of "add a person, start chat/call with
> them" smoother than adding them there, then going to the Activities tab
> to start the communication.

Yeah, I think this is somewhat analogous to the file management
situation. If you just want to find or open a file you can use the
shell, but if you want to do more work you'd start the file manager.

So, the gnome-shell integrated part is about day-to-day using of the
already set up stuff, whereas the contacts app is where you'd fill in
information, or do more complex stuff like link contacts or create
groups. 

There are other integration points we must think about too. Whatever we
come up with should imho replace the contacts pane in evolution, and
must allow interaction with evolution (dnd onto composer windows, etc).
Also, we should have something that corresponds to clicking on the "to"
button in the evo compositor to select a single email (or im if used for
elsewhere) address to add.

-- 
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 Alexander Larsson                                            Red Hat, Inc 
       alexl redhat com            alexander larsson gmail com 
He's a scrappy small-town stage actor fleeing from a secret government 
programme. She's a disco-crazy hypochondriac wrestler married to the Mob. They 
fight crime!