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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: The new tooltips
From:       Segedunum <segedunum () actuaria ! co ! uk>
Date:       2005-01-14 22:34:12
Message-ID: 200501142234.12468.segedunum () actuaria ! co ! uk
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On Friday 14 January 2005 19:42, kde-usability-request@kde.org wrote:
> I read that basically this is the replacement for icon-zooming, yet i think
> unlike icon-zooming (I'm not fan of that either, but it has a purpose)
> these 'tooltips' actually distract from the icon itself.

That doesn't solve the inherent problem though. In Windows XP you get a nice 
tooltip when you hover over application links that give you a brief 
description of what the application does. Personally, I think replicating 
that for the Kicker menu with all the applications KDE has would be a good 
idea.

It's a good idea, and the idea is to have some visual feedback whilst having 
that short textual description that actually tells you something useful. 
Distracting from the icon is no problem, simply because when you hover over 
the icon it's really no longer important. If you want some mouseover eye 
candy, turn the icon black and white or something. I'd optimise the size of 
the tooltips to be a bit smaller and test on different resolutions, but I 
think it's a sound idea.

> Imagine if this occurred everywhere in the UI - that all tooltips appeared 
> instantly without any delay. Imagine how distracting that would be.

It doesn't appear without delay. When you are coming into the kicker the 
'kicker tooltip' (what do we call these?) dissolves in gradually, and when 
you move from one to the other then it is instantaneous as you need feedback 
quickly as you do that. If you already know what it does you click it.

> The icon zooming never went very far outside the kicker bounds, and also, it 
> was just enlarging something you were already looking at - it was not 
> introducing new widgets onto the screen. Thus, it was vastly less
> distracting. 

It didn't do anything useful for you though. It didn't tell you at a glance 
what you were looking at. Even if you've done it a thousand times, 
subconsciously knowing when you're doing a task is a good thing and that's 
something you've forgotten.

Cheers,

David
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