Re: [Evolution-hackers] Evolution Alarm UI

[Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>]

On 10 Oct 2005, at 10:42, Srinivasa Ragavan wrote:

> - Alarm starts with a tray icon, and has provisions to quit, change
> configurations. In the configuration gui, the user can select, which
> calendars, notifications are required. Only for the selected calendars
> the user will get notifications.
> http://www.gnomebangalore.org/?q=system/files&file=/preferences_0.png

I'd say this might fall foul of the current HIG guidelines on  
notification icons, although admittedly they're (a) unfinished, and  
(b) a bit crap so far.  I'd view anything that puts an icon in the  
tray all the time, but which isn't constantly animating in response  
to some change (like a network connection, resource monitor or  
battery charge), with a little apprehension.

> - No more Popup notifications, if libnotify is installed. When the  
> alarm
> has to be indicated, a desktop notification would be send, stating the
> subject, location, time (duration).
>
> http://www.gnomebangalore.org/?q=system/files&file=/notification_0.png

Might be nice to retain the Dismiss/Snooze functionality that you  
currently get with alarm popups... not sure exactly what libnotify  
supports here, and I know we don't have any HIG guidelines for this  
sort of thing yet, but I know Ubuntu's update manager notifications  
offer some sort of options.  ("Remind me later" and "Don't tell me  
again", or something.)

> - In addition to that, when ever there is a alarm, the tray icon,  
> has a
> blinking '!' in it and the tool tip stating the Subject, time
> (duration).
> http://www.gnomebangalore.org/?q=system/files&file=/tooltip_0.png

Would like to think we could invent something a little more  
imaginative than a blinking "!"... randomly blinking things can be an  
accessibility issue (although I think there are some discussions in  
bugzilla about how to handle various DEMANDS_ATTENTION type-things in  
an accessible way).  Also, "!" tends to suggest "error", to me, at  
least-- it looks more like "I've lost the connection to your  
calendar" than "you have a reminder".

> If there are more than one alarm, it says the number of alarms.

Hmm, do you have a screenshot of that?  Sounds like it could be a lot  
of information to cram into a small icon.

Cheeri,
Calum.

--
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson sun com            Java Desktop System Team
http://blogs.sun.com/calum             +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems