Systray jobs and notifications

[Celeste Lyn Paul]

On Monday 06 April 2009 09:04:32 pm Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> On Monday 06 April 2009, Celeste Lyn Paul wrote:

> > I think the idea of using animation to indicate a current job running is
> > a good idea. Is there an icon designed for this yet? At first I thought
> > of an animated Down arrow (a metaphor that is used throughout KDE4 in
> > download icons), but Aaron mentions a spinner that could work too.
>
> bonus is that we already have the spinner and we've been using it around
> kde (plasma, gwenview, dolphin .. i keep seeing it in new places :P)

You mean the circular bubble animated thingy that looks like the Flash loader 
animation?

> > He also mentions using a number to indicate some state. I think the only
> > relevant information would be how many files are completed, but that
> > number by itself may (or may not) be confusing. I'm not sure if some
> > users will think of it as the total number of files instead of completed,
> > or if that is something that can easily be learned. What about
> > completed/total? Would that be too big compared to just using completed
> > or total?
>
> we could make room for it; but then we're back to "what does the total
> number include?"
>
> it could be either jobs only or jobs + notifications ... *thinks*
>
> in the case that there are 2 jobs downloading, one finished and a kopete
> chat update notification would it say:

Ah hah, this is what I was asking about on IRC. So there are more than just 
job notifications contained in this widget? 

If so, that makes "glancing" at the widget more difficult. Besides checking to 
see if there are jobs in progress and how many jobs may be finished, you have 
to do and extra detail check (requiring additional interaction) or mental math 
(if you happen to remember how many files you were downloading) to see if those 
are finished downloads or other types of messages you missed.

(If not, then no problem)

> 2/3
> 3/4
> 2/4
>
> to me, 3/4 makes the most sense. if there are no jobs running we could drop
> the first number and just show the total?

Yes, if there are no jobs running then the only relevant information would be 
the total and so only showing that number makes sense.

> or we could show no number and just the spinner unanimated in the case of
> only notifications. however, it would be nice to see that number grow if
> new notifications appear.

Or that too. Turning off and on a number is something that can be changed 
easily (I think? I'm not a dev) so it would probably be easier to make that 
decision by testing it a few times to see what you expect: If the stopped 
animation is enough of an indicator, or if there is a comfort in seeing a 
number.

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