RFC: Put notifications in sidepanel like widget explorer

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

On Montag, 26. Oktober 2015 09:57:37 CET Sebastian Kügler wrote:
> On Tuesday, October 20, 2015 15:54:01 Martin Klapetek wrote:
> > today I was thinking a bit about our notification system. I believe
> > that the constraints the tiny popup give us are just too limiting.
> > Currently it fits about two notifications and for everything else
> > one has to scroll, plus the space is really cramped for anything
> > else besides the notifications themselves.
> > 
> > So it occurred to me that we could maybe reuse the same side
> > panel we use for widget explorer and activities, only coming in
> > from the right side.
> > 
> > This would give us much more space and with that many more
> > possibilities, like proper grouping of notifications from different
> > apps and possibly also putting /all/ notifications there again
> > (I'm still against it but with that extra space, we could afford it).
> 
> I can't remember a single case in the last months of usage (except for one,
> see below) that made me want that, notifications are already cleaned up, and
> I simply don't get that many persistent ones.

It's not only notifications that are limited by the small popup: Contact list, 
Klipper, Plasma-NM, they could all use more vertical space.

I remember it being really hard to design Plasma-NM to fit in that tiny thing, 
there were tons of occasions where we'd have wanted more space.

And the others I've mentioned also now need much more scrolling than 
necessary.

> On the other hand, I find a side-panel much more intrusive, and much less
> quick-peak-dismiss, so it makes the ui and workflow feel heavier.

The thing is: When you open the popup, your attention is focused on it, 
anyway, regardless of its size. It would feel clunky if we opened it with a 
long animation like we still do far too often in Plasma, but if it opened and 
closed quickly enough, I'm convinced that the benefit of not having to scroll 
so much would outweigh the "cost" of it covering more of the screen which you 
don't have your attention on anyway.

Their sidebar was Deepin's most noticeable difference from other DEs at the 
time it came out, and given that, they were quite successful with it. Budgie 
has a similar sidepanel, and is also getting quite positive reviews overall, 
with no negative mention of the sidepanel I'm aware of.

So, while I don't think notifications alone would warrant a change from fixed-
height popup to full-height sidebar, looking at all applets together, I'm 
convinced it would do more good than harm, even though it would certainly feel 
odd at first.

Cheers,
Thomas