On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 22:40, Conscious User <consciousu...@aol.com> wrote: > >> If people don't figure out how to use something we designed, the answer >> is to improve the design, and not to mount a campaign to educate them :-) >> >> By which I mean that the pieces should feel more natural, and getting >> things done should be more natural, or we're not succeeding. > > It is a noble goal and I support it 100%, but let's not forget that, > as good as the indicators are and as bad as the notification area is, > the notification area is what people are used to. So a little push > might be necessary to overcome the natural resistance to change. > > Also, there is a limit to how natural something can be. I have > absolutely no idea how we could make obvious to a first time user > that the indicator-messages icon is supposed to change when you > receive a new message, for example.
that's right, certain things might create a difficult learning curve. we should always keep one eye on the excellent advice found in the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines, which is a perfect reference for everything you want to design, even a house or a toaster. this particular case you are describing will still not be so terribly bad on the novice: colors become self-explaining, once you see the bubbles with them. the indicator menus are also buttons and actual menus, not only notifiers. the button aspect is naturally apparent already _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ayatana Post to : ayatana@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ayatana More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
