/ 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)
_______________________________________________
Plasma-devel mailing list
Plasma-devel@kde.org
https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/plasma-devel
