Re: gui design of nm-applet

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Fri, 2010-03-19 at 21:23 +0100, Hans-Gerd van Schelve wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:50:03 +0100, van Schelve <public van-schelve de>
> wrote:
> > On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:55:35 -0800, Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>
> wrote:
> >> On Mon, 2010-03-08 at 13:24 +0100, van Schelve wrote:
> >>> We are planning to rollout NM > 0.8 to a very! big number of mobile
> > Linux
> >>> systems. Our different usecases for NM are Ethernet, 3G datacards,
> >>> bluetooth based 3g and in small numbers wlan as well.
> >>> 
> >>> Today we had a discussion about nm-applet in our companay. We are
> > worried
> >>> about our user get overcharge with the usability of nm-applet. The
> >>> biggest
> >>> painpoint we talked about in this context is way nm presents the
> >>> available
> >>> devices, available connections and the active connections.
> >>> 
> >>> The horizontal separator should be removed from nm-applet. It looks
> > like
> >>> a
> >>> logical separator between different connection types.
> >> 
> >> Hmm, the indentation was supposed to help make that clearer.  The
> >> problem is that we do need a mechanism to distinguish between the
> >> "current" network connection for that device and it's associated
> actions
> >> (like disconnect) and the other available connections.  Unfortunately
> >> we're currently stuck in a GtkMenu widget where we can't control the
> >> layout in a fine-grained manner without violating a lot of UI
> principles
> >> (since it is still a menu).
> >> 
> >>> Maybe it could be a way using differnt font size / weight? Or maybe
> >>> indenting blockwise?
> >> 
> >> It might work to make the "available" text in the line smaller perhaps
> >> to differentiate it more from the surrounding text?
> >> 
> > 
> > What do you think about presenting the list in this way:
> One additional thing I thought about could be a "disconnect" entry
> in each section

Right, but now you're getting dangeriously close to what we already
have :)  When you start adding a Disconnect option, you then need to
physically separate that disconnect option somehow from the rest of the
available connections, because Disconnect isn't a connection and thus
shouldn't be grouped with the other connections unless there's some
visible separation.

Would simply making the ----- Available ----- text a bit smaller suffice
to reduce the open space?

Dan

> > 
> > -------------------------------------
> > Wired Network
> >   [ ] Auto eth0 (100Mit FD)
>     disconnect from this device
> > -------------------------------------
> > Mobile Broadband
> >   [x] MyCompany
>     disconnect from this device
> > -------------------------------------
> > Nokia 6680 (Bluetooth)
> >   [ ] MyCompany
>     disconnect from this device
> > -------------------------------------
> > Wireless Network
> >   [x] Foobar     (83%)
> >   [ ] blahfasel  (60%)
> >   [ ] muckebock  (50%)
> >   Connect to Hidden Wireless Network
> >   Create New Wireless Network
>     disconnect from this device
> > -------------------------------------
> > VPN
> >   [ ] MyCompany (openvpn)
> >   [ ] @Home (vpnc)
>     disconnect vpn
> > 
> > 
> > The user is able to activate or deactivate a connection by clicking into
> > a checkbox, or even better using a radio button because you can only
> have
> > one active connection for each physical device. The horizonal rules are
> > not
> > really necessary but I thought you like them ;-)
> > 
> 
> >>> Are there currently any plans to polish the nm-applet?
> >> 
> >> Mainly plans to stop using a GtkMenu widget entirely and move to a more
> >> freeform widget.  That's not in-progress yet though.  Until then we can
> >> certainly discuss ways to make the current menu-based approach better,
> >> especially if we find that users are confused with it.  We should have
> a
> >> lot better data on the new applet too given that both Ubuntu 9.10 and
> >> Fedora 12 shipped with it.
> >> 
> > 
> > You are right. The user will give response. But most of them do have a
> > more
> > or less technical background. The users I am thinking about are really
> > native
> > end users. They know their business application (more or less). They
> know
> > the
> > difference between eMail and a letter. That's it. 
> > 
> > My problem is that I have thousands of them ;-)
> > 
> > HG
> > 
> >> Dan
> > _______________________________________________
> > NetworkManager-list mailing list
> > NetworkManager-list gnome org
> > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/networkmanager-list