[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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>     _______________________________________________
>>>     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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