Re: [Usability] Re: [Rhythmbox-devel] Rhythmbox tray icon - again

[Colin Walters <walters verbum org>]

On Fri, 2003-08-29 at 05:12, Ross Burton wrote:

> Some people consider the interaction model of RB to be that it sits in
> the background, and now and again the user interacts briefly with it,
> before sending it to the background again.  Sounds like how I interact
> with Evolution, should that be able to hide to the notification area
> too?

I think the argument is that Evolution is different in that you will
often want to flip back and forth between it and one or two other apps
like your web browser while you're working on a task.  So you definitely
want both of them in your tasklist, for example.  Evolution and your web
browser are part of your "workflow".

But Rhythmbox is pretty much never used to accomplish a larger goal in
conjunction with other applications.  So in that sense, it's not very
useful to have it in your task list, because you'll only rarely want to
switch back to it.

So in this argument, the notification area is like a "peripheral
tasklist" or something.

I'm not saying I completely agree with the above point of view - just
that I think it's an argument that does have at least some small amount
of validity.

> I believe the real reason for the notification area being used is that
> it makes it easy to pause/skip the song, and then if the user decides
> they want to see the full window they don't need to move the mouse, just
> click.  

Well, yes - but I think the whole not being in your tasklist thing is a
major factor too.

> This brings up the topic of applications adding to their
> window's context menu (in the window list) -- if this were possible most
> of the current UI issues would be solved.  People could right-click on
> the entry in the window list and pause/skip/etc, if they wanted more
> they could then left-click and the window is bought to the top.

Hmm.  So the context menu would be persistent?

> I'm partially agreeing with Sean Harshbarger here -- an applet appears
> to be the way to go. 

If we continue to use the notification area at all, then I'm not so sure
an applet makes sense.  However if future HIG guidelines about the
notification area say Rhythmbox shouldn't be using it as it is now, then
an applet makes a lot of sense.