[Usability]Re: Notification Area guidelines

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="Mark McLoughlin">

> Sorry, I haven't actually tried out either of these so I'm not sure how
> the icons behave. I'm kind of hoping people will respond with "here's how
> app X uses it and I think its a good/bad idea" so that we will get a feel
> for the various different use cases so far and figure out which ones work
> well or not so well.

These icons are used for both notification and status [1]. When a new
message arrives, the icon will flash with an different "note" icon. During
normal operation, it will display the user's present status (online,
visible, etc).

I agree that GnomeICU's "close window to exit entirely" approach is better,
however Gaim's "single click to show/hide window (activate)" and "right
click for menu" approaches are better.


I think 'notification' and 'status' succinctly sum up the first two use
cases you mentioned (ie. the ones we actually want to support). Notification
is for short term, attention-grabbing information ("new mail"), status is
for long-term, at-a-glance information ("connected to network", "battery
percentage", etc).

Many apps will want to use both. Examples:

  - IM apps show connectivity / number of buddies status, but also
    notification of new messages / buddies.

  - A battery applet will show remaining battery life, but also notify when
    the battery is fully charged or close to spent.

  - A network/dialup applet will show connectivity / usage status, but also
    notification of connections and disconnections.

Should an application use only the same icon space for notifications? I
guess this will be mostly answered with the balloon messages stuff (you can
notify without changing the status icon).

Of course, some applications should really only show "true' notifications.
Examples:

  - Distribution update notification tools

  - New email

  - Someone attempting to share/view your desktop (authentication query)

  - Administrator rights granted period (su/sudo)


Thanks *HEAPS* for doing this Mark and Erwann, it's really important to get
this right, especially in the official GNOME releases where we have to set
an example. ;-)

- Jeff


-- 
    "Jane Austen is the Don Burke of romantic comedy." - Andrew Bennetts