[Amarok] rtl awareness, bg gradient, prev/next watermarks +

[Jakob Kummerow]

> http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/1531/amarokarrows3.jpg
> (It's a less "complex" variant of the "Klingon" icons that enrico used in his
> mock. The detail outline is not helpfull at this size)
>
> As for putting buttonesque icons (in contrast to watermarks) to the very outer
> edges, please see what i said about eye catchers and misusage.

What I meant is: put them next to the labels! Like in this mockup:
http://imagebin.ca/view/kFRGJKFQ.html

The arrows/buttons/watermarks (I don't really care what you want to
call them) visually need to form *one entity* with the labels. Which
is why I'd paint them in the same color as the labels' texts,
approximately as in the second drawing in that image.

> make them:
> - either real fullsize icons (dropping labels or put them in tooltips...) or
> - or tiny icons but next to the play/pause button (dropping labels), or
> - if it's more about "i don't care about the icon, but i can't click plain
> labels" make the labels buttons and kick sliding stuff.
>
> Walk on the left side of the street or the right side, but not in the middle.

What's so bad about finding a compromise?
Dropping the labels, and/or adding large prev/next buttons, would
break the entire concept of the new toolbar, which we all agree is
pretty good on the whole.
But just having clickable labels is too much of a broken convention.
So we need a smooth transition usability-wise, i.e. a visual
indication that the labels are indeed clickable.
It's not unusual at all to have an icon+label somewhere that together
form a clickable area; just think of conventional toolbars in
(file/web) browsers and such.

> (Personally) I oppose any half baked solution that will provide you (visually)
> redundant interface elements

Every single "OK" button in every single KDE app has a tick mark right
next to the "OK" label - how can you stand that?! Seeing so much
visual redundancy every day must be an unbearable torture for you :-(

Cheers,
Jakob