[sugar] Clipboard Notification

[Gary C Martin]

On 14 Apr 2008, at 15:04, Mikus Grinbergs wrote:

> Personal note:  Been running the "new look" Sugar/Joyride for a
> while.  [It does what you describe when an Activity is launched.]
>
> I've now trained myself to notice the pulsing icon in the top left
> hand corner -- but I think that is an easily-overlooked location
> (particularly since current notification icons have the same
> background color as the "border" in which they sit).

I also find the new 'activity launch notification' less than  
satisfying. Launching an activity is a very distinct action  taken by  
a user, and the current pulsing notification is not enough of an  
indication of the result. It's also odd if you do happen to have the  
frame open as you see 2 pulsing icons for the launching activity (one  
the notification and one in the actual frame).

I'd like to suggest, again, that the activity launching metaphor be  
one where:

1) Kid clicks on activity icon to launch
2) Sugar immediately opens a fullscreen canvas with just the large  
pulsing icon (i.e a activity zoom view)
3) Canvas is occupied by the activity once it has loaded

This provides:

- immediate and clear feedback to the kid that an activity is indeed  
launching
- prevents casual/impatient clicks on other activity icons while the  
first loads
- allows access to the frame, and for the kid to switch back to  
neighbourhood/group/home if needed
- if the kid does intentionally switch away, the background activity  
launch does not suddenly drag them back once complete
- the slide out launch notification is not needed, but the pulsing  
frame activity icon would stay

If at some future point we get usable Sugar compositing, a nice zoom  
animation could be added to the launched activity so that from where  
ever it was clicked, it scales up and into the centre of the screen  
and starts to pulse, while the rest of the screen content fades out.

Gary