Public bug reported:
Binary package hint: overlay-scrollbar
Foreword: Sorry, that's more a rant then a proper bug report, but I
haven't really found a single good reason for overlay-scrollbar to
exist, just a whole lot of reason why its really bad.
The overlay scrollbar is one of those crazy wheel reinventions for no
reason in the new Ubuntu, here a few basic reasons why it sucks:
* it's inconsistent, when windows are maximuzed or close to the screen border
it will pop up on the right, otherwise it will pop up on the left
* it's inconsistent as it is hardly used by anything, even among Gtk+
applications only a tiny fractions make use of it and there is no chance that
any of the non Gtk applications will ever make use of it
* it's invisible and thus much harder to hit then a visible scrollbar
* it's impossible to hit in a single straight line when approaching a window
from the right, it will only pop up once inside the window, but when that
happens it will pop up on the outside of the window, so you have to move your
mouse close, stop, then move back to click it
* selections have the same color as the scrollbar, thus when a widget has a
selection that goes till the edge it will blend into the scrollbar, making it
not only look weird, but in the worst case completely invisible when scrollbar
and selecting merge into one
* it's much smaller then a classic scrollbar, real scrollbars fill the whole
height of the window, overlay only fills the tiny portion that is the visible
part of a document, thus you have a much smaller area to click on for
page-up/down events
* it doesn't pop up under the mouse, but a few pixels to the right, this makes
it incredible frustrating to use, as the regular pattern of "graphical reaction
-> I am hovering over the item" becomes untrue
* the thing you want least in your GUI is randomly blinking stuff, yet overlay
does exactly that, whenever you move your mouse around the screen overlay
scrollbars pops up and fades out
* if you are off by a single pixel to the right it will disappear instantly,
forcing you not only to travel that pixel back, but to travel all the way to
the left to make it reappear and then back to the right to actually click it,
making it not only hard to hit, but actually punishment, as you get reset to an
earlier stage then where you failed
* buttons that are clickable and dragable at the same time without clear visual
indication that they are special
* it's extremely tiny, yeah the point is to save "screen real estate", but
seriously, a scrollbar is worth more then four pixels that look more like a
graphic glitch then a user element
* it violates Fitt's law on maximized windows
To sum things up, the overlay scrollbar is baffling. It is not just a
cosmetic change or a small tweak, but a drastic change in usability for
the worst while providing no new features of its own. The way it
punishes the user for slipping a few pixels off to the right makes it
fell more like a frustrating and badly designed maze game where you are
not allowed to hit the walls then an actual user interface element.
The only good part about the overlay scrollbar is that one can still
purge it from existence:
sudo apt-get purge liboverlay-scrollbar.*
PS: I am using a trackball without the luxury of a separate scroll-
wheel. I can certainly see how having a scrollwheel might make it more
tolerable, but that doesn't change the fact that its completely awful
for actual point&click interaction.
** Affects: overlay-scrollbar (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
--
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/774098
Title:
overlay-scrollbar exists and really shouldn't
--
ubuntu-bugs mailing list
ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
