Hi mr. Ersin,
you have your right - in many points of design decisions side - some
things seems to lack a serious rationale behind (but I can understand
that as a lack of developer power and maybe some short delivery terms
for this ambitious project [Ayatana]) - but all in all is this is a
work in progress and Indicator Applet with all applets is under
constant refinement.
About developers and development process - I feel that developers
expect the exact feedback that you do here and they agree with this
kind of criticism because those corrections and good ideas come from
user land.
In a way, I can see the way of work of Ayatana team is like an user
driven development process - because any good idea can see the light.
That's been said - please consider the words in plus when you say
something like :
... it looks like there wasn't any active design decision made about
the element at all - we are many peoples here which we start to
think that way (also some bloggers think the same), but finally we
understand that is not enough time
and not enough time and human / machine power for a normal QA process
- the QA process is made on the fly, you just do it ;).
So, for future no need for such words. It can hurt for gratis and is
not so constructive. Just a good / motivated and founded criticism is
enough.
2010/10/11 Ersin Akinci ersin.aki...@gmail.com:
Hello all,
I'm not sure where to send this, so my apologies if I've contacted the
wrong list. I was looking at 10.10's new volume control menu,
pictured here:
http://files.digitizor.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Selection_013.png
I want to commend the Ubuntu team for their ongoing efforts to improve
the toolbar, and I really enjoy the new functionality in the volume
menu. However, I've also wondered about some of the design decisions,
specifically what the rationale was behind them. I drew up a list of
23 issues that I thought the design team might be able to address:
1. What is that arrow bullet on the left next to the Rhythmbox info?
Is it a control? If so, why is it flush with the edge of the menu
(Fitt's law)? Why would we even need a control there to hide it?
2. Why is there a musical notation icon next to the Rhythmbox title?
Isn't it already clear that it controls music?
3. Why is Rhythmbox even mentioned by name at all? How is that
important? If you're going to be locking in the applet with a
particular music player anyhow, what's the point of repeating its
name?
4. This tiny applet is designed around no fewer than six columns, five
of them left-justified and one center-justified. Very jarring.
5. The left edge of the menu is not aligned with with the left edge of
the speaker button on the toolbar.
6. The speaker button is clearly meant to merge seamlessly into the
volume control menu, as if it turned into a tab on a folder, yet the
top edge of the menu continues and separates it from the toolbar
button.
7. Why is there a drop shadow from the top edge onto the toolbar? So
the menu is higher than the toolbar which is already floating off the
desktop? Why are we introducing three z levels, does it serve a
purpose?
8. The spacing between the volume widget in the menu and its flanking
speaker icons is imbalanced.
9. The left edge of the left speaker icon is not aligned with the left
edge of the Mute text.
10. The contrast between the right corner of the horizontal bar in the
volume widget and the menu is very faint and makes it unclear where
the bar actually ends.
11. The musical notation icon isn't done properly. First, the stems
should be aligned with the right of the dots. Second, the bar's
shading is jagged and pixelated, which is OK but contrasts strangely
with the dots' fuzzy shading around the edges. The proportions between
the bars, stems, and dots aren't right, either, and the dots should be
much rounder.
12. The gradient of the Rhythmbox controls has nothing to do with any
of the other system gradients and the light source is coming straight
from overhead.
13. What vertical justification were they thinking of when they
aligned the album text? Is it justified relative to the album cover
picture? Is it justified at all?
14. The album art and the Rhythmbox controls are both bounded by two
separate boxes that are a different shade of grey from the rest of the
menu.
15. Why is the Sound Preferences... text not aligned centrally
between the spacer above it and the bottom edge of the menu?
16. The spacing between the Mute text and the top of the menu as
well as the elements below it has nothing to do with the spacing
between the other subtitles and the elements above and below it.
17. For that matter, why does the text read Mute? Is the sole
purpose of that widget to mute the volume? Why is there text at all?
Isn't the purpose obvious?
18. Why is there a Sound Preferences... option? Isn't this
accessible from the options menu? How many times while changing the
