[KDE Usability] Re: A couple of HIG questions regarding KDE Telepathy

[Rohan Garg]

Hi!
I finally got around to completing the GUI ( only have some backend
storage issues left ) and here is the Final GUI design [1] [2] and [3]
( Please ignore the Online icon on the custom status entry, it's just
a placeholder till i find a proper icon for it ). Feedback is welcome

[1] http://i.imgur.com/VGvcy.png
[2] http://i.imgur.com/rMGiY.png
[3] http://i.imgur.com/nF54g.png
Regards
Rohan Garg



On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 7:33 AM, Matt Rogers <mattr at kde.org> wrote:
> On Saturday, May 07, 2011 03:22:39 AM Aurélien Gâteau wrote:
>> On 03/05/2011 22:41, Rohan Garg wrote:
>> > Now, the main issue i am facing is that after i remove the radio
>> > buttons ( which in my opinion make the UI look cluttered ), how do i
>> > represent to the user that his current IM Status is, say Online? We
>> > discussed a couple of scenarios on IRC, like making the current status
>> > as Bold/Italics, or using a tick mark next to the current status,
>> > using a different highlight color etc but none of the ideas were
>> > satisfactory and had one issue or the other.
>>
>> Hi Rohan,
>>
>> Using radio buttons feels like the natural way to do this, but I agree
>> it looks cluttered here. Maybe that is something which can be fixed in
>> the Oxygen theme instead (Nuno, are you around?)
>>
>> If you want to get rid of those radio buttons, I would personally go for
>> using a bold font, the other options are not good because:
>> - Italics can be hard to read
>> - A tick mark would break the vertical alignment of the status (although
>> a mockup of that would help to make a more informed opinion)
>> - A different highlight color is very hard to get right on all possible
>> color schemes.
>>
>> Two not-completely-related suggestions:
>>
>> 1. Right now the "Set message..." entry looks a bit like a header for
>> the different status. I think it should be either moved back to the
>> bottom of the menu, or a separator should be inserted below it.
>>
>
> I like your separator idea. Rohan, perhaps you could do a mockup of that so we
> could see the visual impact?
>
>> 2. Grouping related status would improve readability IMO. Something like
>> this:
>>
>> [@] rohan16g...mail.com
>> [/Set message.../     ]
>> -----------------------
>> ( ) Available
>> ( ) Be right back
>> -----------------------
>> ( ) Busy
>> ( ) Do not disturb
>> ( ) Away
>> -----------------------
>> ( ) Extended Away
>> ( ) Invisible
>> ( ) Offline
>>
>> Note that I reordered statuses a bit: I may be wrong, but I feel "Be
>> right back" is closer to "Available" than "Away", and "Away" is closer
>> to "Offline" than "Busy" and "Do not disturb". Icons should probably be
>> adjusted as well, but I guess the Oxygen icons would need to be renamed.
>>
>
> Available is the only one that stands on its own. Everything else is some form
> of away state. 'Be right back' can probably go away. It's not any different
> than 'Away' IMHO.
>
>> (I also think there are too many possible statuses, but that's probably
>> enough for now)
>>
>
> You ain't seen nothing yet. ;)
>
>> Aurélien
>
> --
> Matt
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