On 12 Aug 2008, at 21:18, MC wrote: >> http://opensolaris.org/os/community/desktop/uispecs/indiana-uispec/ > > The top panel has too many icons in it.
If I'm honest, that would be my main concern with the current proposal too... I originally had the status notification area down on the bottom panel, taking the view that notification icons behave differently from launcher icons despite closely-resembling them, so they should be kept separate to minimise any confusion. Talking to Frank, though, he persuaded me that a more functional split of "actions and status" on top and "windows and workspaces" on the bottom would be more logical. It also freed up some additional space for the window list applet, and it's always good to give that as much space as can be spared. (It's also worth remembering that that mockup in the spec is only 800x600, so everything looks a bit more cramped than it will appear in reality to most laptop users-- not that we're discounting the likelihood that some people will actually be running at 800x600, due to old hardware, driver config issues or whatever.) > The top panel icon space sacrifices identifiably for accessibility. > That is why you shy away from putting things there that the user > doesn't know about... and let him fill that space with things when > and if he needs to. It's a reasonable argument... one thing that currently counteracts it, though, is that in GNOME it's generally easier to delete things from the panel that you don't want, than to add things that you do-- I'd consider that a usability issue, but it's what we have for now. So the cost to the user of slightly overloading the panel is potentially less than "underloading" it. > The gnome desktop has ample room for icons with labels, and it isn't > being used for anything else right now. Use that for the bulk of > what you want people to see... ...until they open any windows to do some work :) After that, despite the fact we provide a "Show Desktop" button on the panel, I'd warrant that a large number of people rarely see their desktop again, except while logging in or out. (But it would be a great thing to try and find out in a usability study.) IMHO (shared by Ubuntu and OS X, amongst others), the desktop should be a space that's completely owned by the user; distros and apps shouldn't be filling it up on their behalf. Otherwise you end up with the Windows-like scenario where every other app you install thinks it has free reign to throw an icon on the desktop as well. Cheeri, Calum. -- CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer Sun Microsystems Ireland mailto:calum.benson at sun.com GNOME Desktop Team http://blogs.sun.com/calum +353 1 819 9771 Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems
