[Plasma] looks and usability of applet handle frame

[Celeste Lyn Paul]

I´m not sure if on-click interaction is consistent in all widgets.  For 
example, most widgets have click and drag but for the Digital Clock widget, 
click opens the calendar.  It is not click-and-drag to move like the other 
widgets.  I only have the 10 widgets that come by default, but I imagine 
there are other exceptions.  

The question becomes: should the on-click interaction be the same for all 
widgets (then we can think about your proposal more)?  Otherwise we have to 
stick with the border interaction.  

Truthfully I´m not too comfortable with the inconsistent interaction because 
it requires you to learn idiosyncracies of each widget instead of class-level 
interaction.  Are there any widgets where it makes sense that click does 
something else (like open the calendar in Digital Clock).  Making interaction 
with widgets consistent should be a goal, regardless if the 
function/configure icons stay in the same place or are adjusted

On Friday 27 June 2008 07:05:18 Ismael Asensio wrote:
> Here it goes my proposal:
>
> Use icons over the plasmoid itself avoiding the extra handle frame. The
> feel of these icons would be pretty much like those on old amaroker plugin
> for kicker.
>
> All icons are desaturated (ala cashew) but still recognizable, until the
> mouse goes over one of them. This icon "recovers the color" with an
> animation (sorry for the untechnical expresion) and it's ready to be
> clicked by the user. Of course, this behaviour only happens when the
> desktop components are unlocked, and I'm supposing that in this state the
> user only wants to play with the layout of plasmoids, not to interact with
> them.
>
> Every action can be place in a different corner of the plasmoid, to help
> easy recognition, not only by the icon, but by its position. You can easily
> remember that, for example, rotation is low-left corner and changing size
> is low-right, etc. The center of the plasmoid (greater area, easy to click)
> can be set for dragging the plasmoid.
>
> Visually, it could be like the image attached. Sorry for the HORRIBLE
> HORRIBLE mock-up. It's done in a quick&dirty way with MS paint at job
> office... but I hope it helps to get the idea.
>
> 2008/6/27 Loïc Marteau <loic.marteau at gmail.com>:
> > Hello !
> >
> > Sorry if this has already been talked but i would like to open a thread
> > about the frame draws by the applet handle.
> > For people wo doesn't know well plasma terminology I talk about the
> > configuration frame who appears when mouse is over a plasmoid so the
> > user can resize, rotate, configure or move the plasmoid on the Desktop
> >
> > My personal opinion is that this frame is not very pretty and that there
> > is not interest to make it an entire frame around the applet. So I feel
> > that it disturbs the user visually and functionally speaking.
> >
> > Perhaps we can :
> >
> >    * just keep the small area who contains the icons, and add a move
> > icon. * better imho to a maximum reduce the visual pollution : add a
> > cashew for that ! on the top right corner of each applets
> >          o The cashew let appears icons and text for each possible
> >            action when mouse is over the cashew and not on mouse click
> >            so we don't need to make one more click than before for
> >            doing the same thing.
> >          o Like first solution, add a move icon.
> >    * Other ideas...
> >
> > What do you think about ?
> >
> > Cheers !
> >
> > Loic
> > _______________________________________________
> > Panel-devel mailing list
> > Panel-devel at kde.org
> > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/panel-devel



-- 
Celeste Lyn Paul
celeste at kde.org
KDE Usability Project
usability.kde.org