Foldable toolbar - questionable usability

[Mark Kretschmann]

On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 10:31 PM, Téo Mrnjavac<teo.mrnjavac at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 10:18 PM, Mark Kretschmann<kretschmann at kde.org> wrote:
>> Hey all,
>>
>> I just saw in trunk that a change in the toolbars has arrived. The
>> toolbar under the playlist can now be "folded" (hidden) with an arrow.
>> The intention is noble (saving vertical space), but in reality we're
>> merely gaining about 40 pixels space from it, if you subtract the
>> height of the arrow widget itself. And if the toolbar is shown, we
>> actually lose space due to said arrow widget.
>>
> Indeed, it's not a big gain.
> How about removing the folding button and adding a config option to
> make the toolbars appear only when the pointer is hovering the
> playlist or collection?

That would be a typical "micro-option", which we always try to prevent.

Plus, widgets magically appearing is a usability issue in itself. But
our usability experts can probably comment on this in a more informed
way. Currently I see no compelling reason for hiding the toolbars at
all.

-- 
Mark Kretschmann
Amarok Developer
www.kde.org - amarok.kde.org