KTp and Plasma Active

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

On Thursday 03 January 2013 21:11:21 Marco Martin wrote:
> On Thursday 03 January 2013, Artur Dębski wrote:
> > I talked to Thomas today. Here comes summary as requested:
> first of all: grat job! it's a badly needed application and i think is
> pretty near to be really good looking :)

Agreed. I'm really looking forward to it!
 
> > - Thomas suggested different method of setting you status message. To do
> > it
> > now you have to enter status selection mode and click on the button next
> > to
> > it. I disliked it but couldnt think of anything else. Thomas idea was to
> > spilt the button clickable area into to part: icon and text. When you
> > click
> > on text you enter message editing mode. When you click on icon you enter
> > status selection mode. It will be easier to use and will save you one step
> > when changing status message.
> 
> it can just stay a lineedit, in this case is obvious it's always editable
> and there are no "modes"

Possible, but I'm not sure about it. I don't think people edit their status 
messages often enough to warrant a permanent lineedit. It has a strong typing 
affordance...

> > - Active conversations sidebar will be overlay drawer as primarliy
> > intended. It looks like the feature I was seeking was just not implemented
> > yet. It should be available now.
> > 
> > - The contacts list will end up in the split drawer as well. When drawers
> > were created there was an assumption the applications will have only one
> > drawer (if any), and it will be positioned on the right. In KTp Active it
> > feels ok to have two drawers at the same time. The reason behind this is
> > to
> > give user a possibility to hide whole contact list to save space on
> > smaller
> > devices. However we will have to wait for this. This feature takes some
> > work to implement and was not scheduled by PlasmaActive team.
> 
> just wondering: there seems to be plenty of space anyways.. any particular
> use case for wanting to close the contact list?
> i can think about very small screens or vertical ones

Exactly, these two ;) It's useless on a Wetab, but on a 7" screen (or even 
smaller if you're on a smartphone) you may want more space for the actual 
conversation and only show the contact list when you actually need it.

> > - Thomas was not so sure about the menu sidebar idea. I kind of insisted
> > it
> > stayed as it is. Its meant to give you options not only related to contact
> > list, such as link to application settings dialog. You can toggle its
> > visibility and since it isnt using much space I imagine some people who
> > want to have it visible all the time.
> 
> what is it? the round buttons at a side?
> I'm really not sure about them: at the moment they add quite a fair amount
> of visual noise (especially because they have a background always there)
> and are not really clear to me what they do, i would have to press them and
> see the effect to discover what they are about.
> 
> a side note:
> The oxygen icons don't work that well in active, especially for actions.
> They are ok, but only if in any given moment there aren't more than 2-3
> together in the same screen.

Maybe we'll find a better way to present these actions, yes.

> > - The lightbulb idea was appreciated.
> 
> what does the lightbulb icon exactly?
> again, if those actions were in a menu of only text, except the 2 or 3 more
> used te effect is probably slightly better.
> 
> just a couple of other comments related to the look (meant in a purely
> constructive way eh ;)
> * if the sidebar is directly attached to the edge not only removes that
> column of icons but also the left shadow, that is an element more in the
> screen
> 
> * what is used as background for the contact list? there is a standard
> element for that that is a bit more light (and will probably become even
> more)
> 
> * bold text should usually be avoided (we still have to implement in a good
> way font guidelines)

Ah yes, the font guidelines... I guess we'll have to sit together with Andrew 
and Aaron to think about how we can actually implement Andrew's suggestions 
soon.

> * toolbars: would be possible to merge the two top toolbars in just one?
> (again by limiting the number of actions to the bare minimum)
>   right now the bottom one is also displayed with all the 4 borders, adding
> more graphical elements
> 
> * instead a place where it may look better *adding* a toolbar is the
> textarea used to write a message: right now the messages kindof disappear
> into nothing and most components don't work too much in the blue area, if
> there was a toolbar around (arranged in a way only the top border is
> visible) the messages would look like they are scrolling behind it, would
> look more organic
> 
> * messages: now the dialogs/background element of framesvg has a balloon-tip
> element (just a little triangle), it may be used as a comic balloon tip to
> connect the avatars and the message frame

Oh yes, absolutely, the triangle would make sense here.