[Sugar-devel] nitpicks on the sucrose 0.83.6 UI

[Eben Eliason]

On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 11:42 AM, Eduardo H. Silva
<hoboprimate at gmail.com> wrote:
> The Sucrose 0.83.6 Release Notes said that we can comment on it UI on
> the sugar mailing list, so I hope you don't mind me making my wish
> list. Many of these things are perhaps nitpicks, but so be it :)
>
> 1 - I'm unsure about this one, but you tell me: Boxes around all
> desktop objects when hovered:

Yes, that was the intent.

> a - For prettiness sake, they could have rounded corners

Yup, see mockup. ;)
http://laptop.org/en/laptop/interface/index.shtml

> b - They should always appear even if the resume by default choice
> isn't toggled. In fact, all actionable graphic on sugar should have
> some graphical change when hovered. For example, in the frame, the
> background for icons change from grey to black. I think this could be
> easily made with the activity icons by adding to them a new light-grey
> rounded square which is only visible when hovered. This would mean all
> icons on the "desktop", XO users, Activity icons, network icons.
> c - this also makes the interface give more feedback to the user.

Yup yup, this was exactly our thoughts when introducing the rounded
rect on hover.  It should be ubiquitous in the zoom levels, and Also
in other places with actionable icons, such as the Journal.

>
> 2 - a laptop icon to be placed in the bottom of the frame
> a - It contains in its palette the options:
>  - Configure
>  - Logout
>  - Restart
>  - Shutdown
> b - This leaves the current XO in home with only the option "About me"

Actually, we discussed this possibility, and Christian and I were
averse to it because we want to maintain the idea that the XO itself
is the hybrid online identity of the user and their machine.  This is
precisely why the XO is shown at start up, transitioning from stroke
to colored fill (and why, ideally, the reverse would happen at
shutdown).

> c - This allows one to access any of the above options from any view,
> via the frame.

This is possible in the latest builds.  The fact that the XO menu for
yourself wasn't consistent everywhere was a bug.  You can now access
the actions you mention from the XO in any zoom level, as well as the
Frame.

> 3 - Add a "don't Keep" option in the "name this fresh activity"
> dialog. Perhaps a Keep icon with a cross over it? Or just the erase
> icon to keep symbols consistent throughout the interface.

I think it goes without saying that this is a desired feature.  I
guess we need to work out the DS details.

> 4 - Change the "View details" icon to the latest try at it that Eben
> gave. Perhaps I just don't understand why > is preferable.

I'm with you on the [...] idea.  Christian adamantly opposes.  Perhaps
it's something we can discuss at an upcoming design meeting.

> 5 - I'm unsure about this one, so I'll just throw it out as food for
> thought. It takes approximately one second to reveal the primary
> palette (which usually only titles the object), and another second to
> reveal the secondary. Perhaps these times could be decreased? Is it
> really discoverable that a secondary palette exists for a icon, if it
> takes 2 seconds of a stationary cursor for it to be revealed?

It's a fair question.  It's worth noting that we actually *increased*
these times after the early releases, because we found that nearly
everyone would wait for the secondary menu to perform *any* action at
all on an object, including the simple starting of activities.  This
wasn't the intent.  The secondary actions were meant to be just that,
with the default action (the first in the list of the secondary
palette) being invoked with a simple click on the object.

It seems to me thus far that this was the right decision.  The people
who cared (because they really wanted the secondary features) then
learned that right-click reveals the secondary palette immediately.

What you say about indication is true, though.  I wonder if there are
any thoughts on how we could indicate "there is more here" without
speeding up the reveal.


Thanks for all the good thoughts!

- Eben


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