Thank you for helping with making Ubuntu better by reporting this bug.
We've briefly discussed this issue on IRC and decided that this issue
deserves some more attention. I'm marking this bug as Triaged and am
opening an task in the upstream project so we can keep track of it there
as well.
** Description changed:
Binary package hint: indicator-application
- Application indicators are tiny buttons that spawn wide menus. Since
- other indicator menus autoexpand if the cursor hovers over another
- indicator (much like regular window menus), the previous menu
- disappears. This is not THAT big of a problem (although I would argue
- that it still is one) with regular window menus because most items are
- wider than a single icon. However where this becomes REALLY prominent
- and annoying is indicator-sound, because chances are a user clicks the
- applet most of the time to set the volume. I think it's safe to assume
- that most of the time the volume is not zero, which means the slider is
- way over the boundary created by the indicator icon. I have excellent
- hand-eye coordination and even I have sometimes found myself struggling
- with the applet, accidentally expanding the message indicator menu
- several times before being able to adjust the volume, because the
- optimal path for my cursor movement crosses the menu item boundary on
- the right side. (See attached screenshot.)
+ Application Indicators are tiny icons with large menus. When you've
+ opened one such menu you can browse through the others simply by moving
+ your mouse of the other icons.
- I think a good solution would be to introduce a slight delay (no more
- than a few hundred milliseconds) before a neighboring indicator applet
- menu gets autoexpanded.
+ However, this does cause problems when you quickly want to go to one of
+ the menu items. As illustrated in the attached screenshot you often go
+ over neighbouring icons. This closes the menu with the menu item you
+ were planning to click and opens the other.
- In the long run, this could be given some thought with regards to
- regular menu items as well. Could the delay work? Or would making all
- menu items wider within the theme be a more feasible workaround? I think
- this would deserve some actual usability testing time.
+ A solution would be to use a timer for the 'auto-expanding' feature.
+
+ From an IRC conversation on this bug:
+ "<bratsche> Okay, so gtk+ has something internal called (I think) a stay-up
triangle.. but as far as I know, it's only used when dealing with submenus from
a menu.
+ But try to envision a menu with several menuitems, and the first menuitem
has a submenu with several menuitems. Your mouse is currently over the top
menuitem of the parent menu and the submenu from it is open to the right.
+ Now when you move the mouse toward say the middle of that submenu, you'll
probably mouse-over a menuitem below the current one in the parent menu..
+ But there are two things that can keep it from becoming the active
menuitem.. a timer, and this stay-up triangle.
+ <bratsche> Anyway, we should think about this some. Indicator icons are
small enough that in the case of indicator-sound, going to all the trouble of
duplicating this stay-up triangle might be more trouble than it's worth.
Judging by the screenshot in qense's bug, the stay-up triangle would cover
most the majority of the neighboring indicator icon anyway, so maybe a simple
timer would be enough."
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: indicator-application 0.0.18-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-18.27-generic 2.6.32.10+drm33.1
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-18-generic i686
Architecture: i386
- Date: Thu Apr 1 00:43:59 2010
+ Date: Thu Apr 1 00:43:59 2010
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ProcEnviron:
PATH=(custom, user)
LANG=en_US.utf8
SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: indicator-application
** Changed in: indicator-application (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided => Low
** Changed in: indicator-application (Ubuntu)
Status: New => Triaged
** Also affects: indicator-application
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Changed in: indicator-application
Status: New => Confirmed
** Summary changed:
- Autoexpanding indicator menus hurt usability
+ Auto-expanding AppIndicator menus makes navigating to menu items harder
--
Auto-expanding AppIndicator menus makes navigating to menu items harder
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/552920
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu.
--
ubuntu-bugs mailing list
ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
