[Libreoffice] [UX] LO status bar annoyances

[Kohei Yoshida]

Hi Christoph,

On Tue, 2010-11-30 at 22:31 +0100, Christoph Noack wrote:

> DOCUMENT CHANGED INDICATION
> 
> I read all the comments very carefully and I understand some thoughts
> and concerns. However, the constraints / requirements do support Kohei's
> solution (if we want to keep the current save toolbar icon approach).
> 
> A solution should:
>       * just work
>       * be unobtrusive (don't catch attention if it isn't required,
>         don't waste space)
>       * be self-explanatory (if possible)
> 
> Concerning the latter, this is impossible with any approach. But to
> inform the user, the title bar totally misses any kind of tool tip or
> help text that explains its use(fulness).
> 
> But the current solution isn't perfect, of course. Current issues:
>       * The extended help tip still mentions the '*' for a changed
>         document.

Good catch!  Yup, this needs to be fixed.

>       * For unsaved documents, the normal tool tip mentions "The
>         document has not been modified since the last save." (Small
>         issue, may not be changed).

Yup.  Another good point.

>       * The red "!" is indeed a bit strange considering the importance
>         of this message.

That wasn't originally my idea, but I'll take it. :-)

>       * The icon does not communicate any behavioral difference - it is
>         just a status information, but looks very similar to the view
>         mode buttons etc.

Ok.  I could probably use some help here, as I'm not an artist.

>       * The "double-click behavior" is inconsistent to all platforms I
>         know of. It may even be problematic for some users ...
>         personally, I would remove it.

Yup.  That part was added as an after-thought, just because I could.  I
have no problem removing it.

> 
> But how to address the issues you raised? My personal take:
>       * Keep the status indicator where it is (in the status bar)
>       * If the document is unmodified, add some very subtle document
>         shape. Then, there is a reason for showing a tool tip and the
>         "What's that?!" effect may be reduced.
>       * For the modified document, reduce the "warning" level and -
>         maybe - just show a document icon with a yellow star in it. This
>         a) is similar to the old '*', and b) is used for to indicate new
>         documents on certain platforms.

Thanks for this.  We actually use two separate image files for both
statuses, and the unmodified image just happens to be all transparent
image.  So if someone could some up with better images for both document
statuses I'll be happy to include them. :-)

> And, just a small intentional idea - what about adding a bit more value
> to this "feature". For example, add the "Document is modified. Saved XXX
> minutes ago." time to the tool tip. If things go wrong, people tend to
> look at their data files to know how long they have been working on this
> document - so discarding any changes might then be safe.

This is a great idea, and I would love to see this added to the current
document status!  Perhaps I should add this to the easy hacks page.

> Well, I hope this helped anyhow ... I don't know :-)

It sure did.  Thanks a lot. :-)

Kohei

-- 
Kohei Yoshida, LibreOffice hacker, Calc
<kyoshida at novell.com>