[Sugar-devel] [DESIGN] palette timeouts (was Re: #1169 NORM: Drop down menus give no indication of their existence, also are too slow to load.)

[Gary Martin]

Hi Tomeu,

On 8 Sep 2010, at 10:30, Tomeu Vizoso <tomeu at sugarlabs.org> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> looks like Seeta is interested in doing something about this.
> 
> Do we have any kind of agreement on what changes should be done?

From that ticket there seems to be agreement on making a left click immediately raise a palette where there is no other primary action. Should I start filing enhancement request tickets for each case I can find? Example: For the owners buddy icon, in all cases, a single left click should open the 'Shutdown, Logout, My settings, Register' palette.

Regarding the secondary palette timing, a delay is there for several sane reasons:

  - hiding advanced and infrequently used features one level down to reduce UI complexity**
  - delaying the palettes from obscuring other parts of the UI a user may be trying to get to  

** we must be open to sorting out cases where we have the priority wrong, the home view activity resume vs. start new is a clear example that needs resolving (e.g. resume and start new need to be given equal UI priority).

How long the delay should be is not so obvious. 

Also be aware of future touch input, where a single tap would be equivalent of a left click, and a tap with hold would raise the palette, FWIW there is no good right click in a touch world —some folks are using two and three fingered touches but these are pretty obscure and unnatural to use, especially for small button sized targets; might be OK for something like raising/lowering the frame when allowed anywhere on the touch surface.

Regards,
--Gary  

> Thanks,
> 
> Tomeu
> 
> On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 06:51, Sugar Labs Bugs
> <bugtracker-noreply at sugarlabs.org> wrote:
>> #1169: Drop down menus give no indication of their existence, also are too slow to
>> load.
>> -----------------------------+----------------------------------------------
>>    Reporter:  wwdillingham  |          Owner:  tomeu
>>        Type:  enhancement   |         Status:  new
>>    Priority:  Normal        |      Milestone:  0.90
>>   Component:  sugar         |        Version:  Unspecified
>>    Severity:  Critical      |       Keywords:  interface design usability sugar-love GPA
>> Distribution:  Unspecified   |   Status_field:  Needinfo
>> -----------------------------+----------------------------------------------
>> 
>> Comment(by FGrose):
>> 
>>  In my estimation, reducing the hover-delay-time-before-palette-showing by
>>  50 to 70 % would make the palettes more discoverable.  Pop-up help and
>>  previews on the web seem to pop up pretty quickly these days.
>> 
>>  This would be an easier mitigation to implement and would help on action
>>  buttons with palette menus as well.
>> 
>>  I like the left click reveal, where possible, as well.
>> 
>> --
>> Ticket URL: <http://bugs.sugarlabs.org/ticket/1169#comment:14>
>> Sugar Labs <http://sugarlabs.org/>
>> Sugar Labs bug tracking system
>> 
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