[Sugar-devel] nitpicks on the sucrose 0.83.6 UI

[Tomeu Vizoso]

On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 18:00, Eben Eliason <eben at laptop.org> wrote:
> 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

Entered http://dev.sugarlabs.org/ticket/406 about this.

>> 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.

Yeah, would be nice to modify CanvasIcon and the gtk button theme
engine to add support for this. Added this to the wiki:

http://sugarlabs.org/go/DevelopmentTeam/ProjectIdeas#Graphical_toolkit

>> 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.

Would be nice to start specifying soon the work that needs to be done,
so we make sure all the pieces land at the same time in the next
release.

>> 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.

Yeah, the small button we have today is quite bad.

Thanks for the ideas,

Tomeu

>> 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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