[Usability]Re: Notification Area guidelines

[Lars Weber <lars brokenbits de>]

Mark McLoughlin <mark skynet ie> wrote:
> 	+ Right click or Shift-F10 should display a context
> 	  containing:
> 	    o A "Remove Icon" option - see below.

        WRT hiding/removing of a status icon there seem to be three
different possible approaches:

        1. To not allow hiding/removing of the icon at all.

        2. To allow the removal of the icon through context-clicking and
           to have a corresponding setting (show/not show status icon) in
           the application's preferences.

        3. To allow the hiding of the icon through context-clicking and to
           have the possibility of un-hiding icons through the context
           menu of the notification area.

[...]
> 	+ Should the icon blinking time out? After how long?
> 
> 	+ When/why should balloon messages be used? What types of
> 	  information should they contain?
> 
> 	+ Balloon messages should always have a timeout. Need to
> 	  define the timeout length.

        It might make sense to not differentiate between balloon messages
and notification through blinking because that way it's easiest to define
when either has to be used in a way that will be implemented consistently
between apps; i.e.:

        o By default the icon never blinks but shows a ballon message
          instead to notify the user.  (Balloon times out after n
          seconds.)

        o If balloon messages are disabled the icon blinks for n seconds
          instead of showing the balloon message.

        o If the application has something that it wants to display to the
          user for longer than n seconds, it should use a special icon
          instead of blinking.

Regards,
Lars