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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: [RFC] Clock Defaults
From:       Matt Bonyak <dingodonkey () stny ! rr ! com>
Date:       2002-08-21 13:30:54
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On Wednesday 21 August 2002 10:41 am, Ryan Cumming wrote:
> Firstly, I think that the blinking colon should be disabled by default, for
> two reasons:
> 1) It's useless visual noise; it distracts the user without providing any
> additional information. Using a computer is hard enough as it is.
> 2) Some system tray applications use a blinking icon to alert the user. The
> blinking colon interferes with the user's ability to determine if a nearby
> system tray icon is blinking without refocusing their attention to the
> system tray. When I used Licq regularly, I found that my ability to
> recognise its blinking message icon out of the corner of my eye was almost
> completely destroyed by the clock applet's blinking colon.

These are both excellent points, and I agree wholeheartedly.  Good luck 
finding opposition ;)

> Now, for the plain clock versus digital clock debate. I don't think the
> digital clock has particularly bad usability. My reasoning is that
> LCD-style numbers are very common in modern society, and strongly
> associated with timekeeping. There are, however, a few arguments that could
> be made for the plain clock:

I agree about the association with timekeeping.  Additionally, the LCD clocks 
take up a bit less room (if you're on that silly 12 hour format with am/pm, 
that is).  Frankly, as long as the LCD clock uses the "plain colours" option 
defaultly, I'd, after much deliberation, rather that we use that defaultly 
than the Plain Clock.

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