[Sugar-devel] [DESIGN] Instant palette popdown - a usability improvement
Tony Anderson
tony_anderson at usa.net
Sun Jul 3 10:17:59 EDT 2016
Hi, Sam
Sounds good. Since I am running 0.106 is this implemented by changing an
file which I could retrofit?
Tony
On 07/03/2016 02:40 PM, Sam Parkinson wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I have made a patch to implement this proposal:
> https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar-toolkit-gtk3/pull/326
>
> You really should try it out. It is surprising how much quicker it
> makes Sugar feel. Sugar feels much more snappy.
>
> It probably might even Sugar feel snappier on the XO1s, given that it
> isn't draining any more cpu cycles. In fact, it probably uses less
> CPU given it removes some code and "animations", but that is so marginal
>
> Thanks,
> Sam
>
> On Sat, May 28, 2016 at 11:50 PM, Walter Bender
> <walter.bender at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> On Sat, May 28, 2016 at 9:22 AM, Tony Anderson <tony_anderson at usa.net
>> <mailto:tony_anderson at usa.net>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Walter,
>>
>> I am not sure why the right-click should not open a palette whose
>> function is comparable to the context-menus in other systems. I
>> don't know how a
>> right click is used as an accelerator.
>>
>>
>> It is accelerating what hover does.
>>
>>
>> The issue is that a right-click can open a palette which stays
>> open until there is another click or the user clicks in the
>> palette. This is much better than our current disappearing menus
>> (if you move the cursor so as to leave the boundary of the icon
>> and its palette for a microsecond, it disappears and you have to
>> start over. This also means hover can be used for tooltips - a
>> single piece of information (the name of the activity, for example.
>>
>>
>> We have more info the longer you hover. We could perhaps delay the
>> disappearance or expand the hit area to address your concern.
>>
>>
>> I think Sam's concerns about the home view arises from its being
>> used to resume activities which is redundant to the use of the
>> Journal view for that purpose.
>> Originally in Sugar, a click on the icon launched an activity (as
>> it does now in the List View. A click on an icon in the Journal
>> view resumed the activity. This
>> was a very simple and understandable interface. In most cases
>> users did not have to see or understand a palette menu.
>>
>>
>> We went through this many times. The current behavior reflects the
>> need to address among other things, journal spam. In my computing
>> life, 90+% of the time I am continuing existing work rather than
>> starting something new. And we have a keyboard shortcut for the
>> latter behavior. We did discuss having some activities be able to
>> override the default behavior. Which would you suggest?
>>
>> Actually this style probably promotes discoverability. When a
>> user clicks on an icon in the Home View and an arbitrary activity
>> instance is launched, the
>> user does not have a predicable starting point. This is
>> particularly difficult in situations where an XO is shared among
>> multiple users since Sugar has no
>> way to know who was the last to launch an activity.
>>
>>
>> We need to address the multiple user issue separately. Each user
>> should have their own history.
>>
>>
>>
>> Tony
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 05/28/2016 02:29 PM, Walter Bender wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, May 28, 2016 at 8:18 AM, Sam Parkinson
>>> <sam.parkinson3 at gmail.com <mailto:sam.parkinson3 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Tony,
>>>
>>> On Thu, May 26, 2016 at 8:58 PM, Tony Anderson
>>> <tony_anderson at usa.net <mailto:tony_anderson at usa.net>> wrote:
>>>> Hi Sam
>>>>
>>>> I like the Google apps button on the Google main page and
>>>> the menu button at the far right of the Firefox toolbar.
>>>> They show as a popup and have
>>>> plenty of screen space for icons and larger font sizes.
>>>> This could support a design in which a left-click always
>>>> causes an action and a right-click is required
>>>> to open up the 'palette' This is done well on the standard
>>>> toolbar.
>>>>
>>>> On the Home View, for instance. I would prefer that
>>>> left-clicking on the icon launches the activity (new
>>>> start). The tooltip shows the name of the activity (and
>>>> nothing else). A right-click can open a list of instances
>>>> available to be resumed. Using the Google or Firefox style,
>>>> the list of instances can look exactly like the
>>>> corresponding entry in the Journal.
>>>
>>> I think that if we make palettes right click only, we loose
>>> an important discoverability aspect. Do you find the
>>> hover-to-open helpful or harmful to discoverability in your
>>> experience?
>>>
>>>
>>> +1. I implore you not to make any aspect of the interface depend
>>> upon right click. It should always be an accelerator, but
>>> nothing more.
>>>
>>>
>>> I also think that the homeview palettes are a special case.
>>> We aren't going to be able to add more items or elaberation
>>> to the running activity palettes, or the buddy palettes. If
>>> we wanted to make the journal more intergrated with the
>>> homeview, couldn't we just replace the homeview with an
>>> enhanced journal? (Did we discuss this on list? [1])
>>>
>>>
>>> I think a lot could be done in that space. Love to see some
>>> concrete proposals.
>>>
>>>
>>> I find the idea of a larger font size interesting. Is the
>>> current palette font size too small? It is also important
>>> to remember that any font size increase makes the distance
>>> you need to move the mouse bigger, which could be a negative.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Sam
>>>
>>> [1] https://www.sam.today/blog/sugar-nohomeview-design.html
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Tony
>>>>
>>>> On 05/26/2016 12:44 PM, sam at sam.today
>>>> <mailto:sam at sam.today> wrote:
>>>>> Hi All,
>>>>>
>>>>> A while ago, I dropped a mention on the list to how many
>>>>> users found the palette system confusing, at least in my
>>>>> usability testing experiment.
>>>>>
>>>>> I recently wrote this up, with a more detailed rational;
>>>>> https://www.sam.today/blog/sugar-with-instant-palettes/
>>>>>
>>>>> I invite you to comment on this. This could be an
>>>>> interesting change for sugar (0.)110.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Sam
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Sugar-devel mailing list
>>>>> Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
>>>>> <mailto:Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org>
>>>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Walter Bender
>>> Sugar Labs
>>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Walter Bender
>> Sugar Labs
>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>>
>
>
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