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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: ksytray madness
From:       Stefano Borini <munehiro () ferrara ! linux ! it>
Date:       2003-10-24 21:19:23
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On Thu, Oct 23, 2003 at 08:53:35PM +0200, Sander Devrieze wrote:

> > better... on a OnMouseOver event the systray expands itself vertically
> > (even out of kicker, since the user focus is on the tray widget), showing
> > all the icons, normally hidden.
> 
> I think this is a good idea. Remark: when people have very very much systray 
> icons you get a list which fills the whole screen. So I think it will be a 
> good thing to limit the size of it and have an automatic scroll 
> functionality.

scrolling is bad here. Manual scrolling means adding a key to scroll
(which should be small -> poor accessibility) and looking for a small
icon in a small window, doing a lot of clicks to find the one we are
interested to. Automatic scrolling means adding a sensible zone that
scrolls forth and back the icons: this means waiting until the icon is
visible and non-human user ability to deal with the mouse minigestures
to reach the result. The main points of strenght of tray is its
effectiveness in being fast both in access and notification and its
clean, simple interface.

> > The default systray shows only icons that
> > are chosen as "hyperactive", the ones the user want to be at hand.
> 
> I think it's better to do *also* some pre-selecting (it should be possible to 
> change by hand too). So we need some standardisation for which styles of 
> systray icons should be placed on every level. For example:
> * A "level 1 systray icon" should be showed automatic in the always visible 
> icons level if possible.
> * A "level 2 systray icon" should be showed automatic between the level 1 and 
> level 3 ones.

i think it's a good idea, however hits the fact that this kind of
approach relies on the heart of each developer. I expect a lot of
developers will ignore these suggestions and will place the icon in the
level 1 without pain, just to have some form of unneeded visibility.
however, the concept can be ok. I'll think more` about it this night, and
if some good idea pops up i'll report in list.

> * Systray icons should go always automatic to level 1 if it have a 
> notification (so it's possible a level 1 icon should go for some time to a 
> higher level).

good.

> > The
> > selection of the active icons could be made with right click, and the
> > "hyperactive" icons are framed to hint the user about its particular state.
> 
> IMO it isn't a good idea to make the behavior inconsistent.

for the right click? the problem is that left click actually does the
associated action. The rbm is the good place to add an entry "set as
hyperactive". I'm not really convinced about what i'm suggesting, i see
a lot of problems in this approach, just adding some idea in the pool.

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