Review Request 124151: Add a default icon to notifications popup

[Xen]

>>/  On June 23, 2015, 10:40 a.m., Kai Uwe Broulik wrote:
/>>/  > I actually really like it, perhaps we should make KDialog passive popup not set an icon by default now
/>>/  
/>>/  Philipp A. wrote:
/>>/      i also like the no-icon no-space version. why add something that just takes up unnecessary space and has no informational value?
/
> I prefer the no-icon version as well. I don't think the visual inconsistency is a problem. On the
> contrary, I think reducing the uniformity may somewhat reduce strain when scanning notifications
> since they become more individualized landmarks in the stack. It also makes the presence of icons in
> the notifications that do sport them feel more purposeful, making it more likely to pay attention to
> icons and getting something out of it instead of getting trained to ignore them and look at the only
> reliably disambiguifying content (the text). This way, you look straight at the text - the only
> meaningful content, without having to skip over the icon.

> - Eike


If I may be allowed to add some opinion here, being just a bystander...

Being trained to ignore a default icon is more like an automatism and it 
serves in means of recognition. That doesn't mean you have to pay visual 
attention to the other icons or that visual (conscious) attention would 
be a good thing. Ideally it becomes a subconscious process anyway.

Getting a differing spacing (left-side indentation) for no-icon and 
do-icon introduces more fatigue. That means perusing the notification 
stack becomes a more tiring thing. The informational value of the icons 
or of having no icon doesn't add anything much in terms of "information 
intake" and most of the notifications...

Sorry to say so, but my own personal KDE experience has been that there 
are way many notifications and most of them don't serve a good purpose 
and clearing the notifcation stack becomes a chore. E.g. Clementine (I 
don't use Amarok) sends a play-event/notification to the stack on every 
item played. It is pretty senseless to be notified about new songs in a 
way that long surpasses what the song is doing. A temporary song, a 
temporary item, would better have a temporary notification (such as the 
on-screen popup that Amarok does or used to do and that Clementine 
perhaps does also (don't remember)). Helpful would be a vertical stack 
displayed on-screen where each item has a timer before it disappears and 
clears the stack (or reduces the stack size (vertically, the number of 
items present on the screen) and perhaps in conjunction with a permanent 
history thing. I feel a large amount of time (relatively speaking) is 
being dedicated by the user in clearing that stack. It is one of my 
gripes in KDE.

Applications that don't set an icon is also something that ..how to say. 
It could be dissuaded and not designed around. I think it would be a bad 
thing if your direction would be about "not trying to get a consistent 
look" but perhaps that is irrelevant as each author can decide by 
him/herself. I just feel a common default icon would be a boon in terms 
of looks and the reducement of visual fatigue as the user only has to 
look in a default location for all text (visually space/oriented) and 
ease of repetition/recognition is a good thing.

Lately visual interface designers have for mostly political reasons I 
believe done away with the "everything would preferably be in a default 
location" concept that has long been the way of doing menus etcetera. If 
you can find something blindly, that increases the speed of your 
operation of the machine. But recently (e.g. in Windows start menu etc.) 
(and the Unity Dock, etc.) /searching/ has become a more apt way to do 
things. In Windows it is so bad that without searching, you can't even 
find anything. E.g. the "configuration screen" of Windows 7 and 8 (you 
can even barely find it in Windows 10) has been reorganized to the 
extent that it is very fatigueing to read any of the text (because it is 
all very long) and the only way to get anywhere is usually to search.

By contrast the KDE menu (Kicker?) is still very doable although it is 
not as fast as the Windows XP menu used to be. Searching is still often 
an apt way to get somewhere (especially if you don't know where to look) 
but at least the results are fast and pleasantly oriented. A scrolling 
side-to-side menu is not really a good way to get anywhere (repeatedly) 
because every click is a separate action that requires wait-time before 
you can do the next move. In contrast, a cascading/unfolding menu is 
very rapid because it is like "one motion" to get anywhere.

But search always requires mental attention which introduces fatigue and 
lowers the speed. Searching is never a trained thing. Which is why, of 
course, you can add stuff to Favourites. But there's not enough space in 
the favourites to include everything you want. Which means you get back 
to clicking on desktop-icons, a thing the menu tries to avoid or 
supersede!! Personally I know no way to organize my favourite 
applications and I resort to desktop icons and direct krunner activity.

But, to recap, familiarity is important, predictability is important, 
efficiency is really all that matters, and informational value of icons 
is not really all that important (as long as they look good and are 
recognisable) (and distinguisable) as it is a subconscious process 
anyway. So having a default icon does not really take away from the 
recognition of the other icons, but I deally I would ensure that very 
few default icons remain anyway. The default icon could also better be 
round or square. Anyway, these are just my thoughts.

Regards,

Bart (Schouten)


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