Changes to Activity Configuration UI

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

On 02.05.2012 10:13, Fania Bremmer wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Nice that we are moving forward with that dialog...
>
> +1 for the label inside the text field

That was the plan. However, the problem with that is that it breaks the balance 
and looks bad this way (see 
http://wstaw.org/m/2012/04/30/plasma-desktopvQ4217.png). Therefore, Marco put 
the label back. If you have a good idea how we can remove the external label 
without braking the balance, Marco would surely be happy to try it out. :)

> +1 for testing the lock/unlock slider with only icons (needs some testing with
> users I guess, if they understand the message)

I just did my usual "n=1 user test" and the participant (a usability expert 
colleague who has never seen Plasma Active before) immediately interpreted it 
correctly ("This means that it is secured, that I need a password to get in"). 
So even though she thought "secured" instead of "private", she associated the 
correct function with it. And maybe "secured" actually fits better than 
"private", because "private" may imply "hidden". However, the Activity is not 
hidden. Everyone can see that it's there. But it is "secured" because it's 
protected by a password.

> Actually I guess with more free space between the different elements we would
> gain a better grouping of relevant elements. So more space between title bar and
> name text field, more space between text field and wallpaper.

Remember that the original intention behind modifying the dialog was to save 
vertical space on smaller tablets. The only option I see here is to have a fluid 
layout which adapts to the resolution (applying the vertical grouping only on 
larger resolutions).
@Marco: Since the "Active Project"'s intention is to be deployable on anything 
from a smartphone to a big screen in the end, doing fluid layouts should be easy 
with the framework, right? ;)

> Have you thought about the error message dialog (same activity name)? Where
> would it pop up/be displayed? Did we decide for a common pattern for error
> messages in PA?

The idea that came up on our last discussion thread for this was a "Message 
Bubble" that is connected to the name field. However, this was not implemented 
yet. Currently the message appears to the right of the lock/unlock switch (not a 
good position, actually)
I think the bubbles are a good (and rather widespread) pattern for messages 
which relate to specific input fields, so I think we should try that out.

> With the private switcher, only a lock and unlock icon might not be enough
> intuitive. we should test that on users actually. It might be better to use a
> "public" icon like the one used in dribble
> (http://dribbble.com/shots/415967-Privacy-Settings) as the opposite of the
> locked status. what do you think?

See above, the n=1 test was successful (asking a few more people would be good, 
though).

> In one sketch I actually tried to go a bit in direction of a wizard, so chunking
> up the 3 different steps visually, with 3 different headlines. That would make
> it here:
> 1 - Give your activity a name
> 2 - Make it private
> 3 - Select a wallpaper (here maybe also with the "browse" Button for selecting
> own photos as wallpaper, a feature we discussed months ago)
> Go.
> But as it was decided to remove all unnecessary headlines, labels etc, that
> might lead into another (unwanted) direction :)

The wizard discussion is still open, we haven't decided on that yet. But I don't 
think we have enough space for additional headlines (surely not on a 7" tablet, 
and probably not even on a 10" tablet unless we want to reduce the number of 
rows of wallpapers). Being able to select your own photos would be great, yes.

Cheers,
Thomas