[Plasma] looks and usability of applet handle frame

[Ismael Asensio]

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
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