This latest mockup to try to make the notification area look better got a bit out of hand, but the idea is to have some visible container widget to hold all the notification area icons. This way your panel looks a lot cleaner and it’s easier to distinguish them from applets or launchers. They are safely in their box, and you won’t have to be afraid they’ll attack you anytime soon. I also thought it would be a nice idea to have launchers placed on some kind of buttons to increase consistency.
Nice, I like it… if just ubuntu would look like that
I really like this mockup too, but I have to say I disagree on that the last one was “a bit out of hand”. As the responses for that thread reads, to have a consistent look of the notification bar would be wonderful!
Adding the a tiny border is OK too, for sure. But remember to have an option to disable it, and maybe even one “very small border” option for those with restrained screen real-estate.
Keep up the good work.
Pretty nice! =)
I assume that means that tray icons have real argb transparency?
also… the tray shading looks a lot like one giant button
Looks nice though
Speaking of screen real-estate, many applications now are using the notification area instead of a panel applet. I have icons for the following apps in my notification area right now: opera, pidgin, tomboy, tasque banshee and network monitor. I also have launchers in my panel for each of those; that’s a lot of redundancy and a waste of space.
I think there is a real problem here.
Network monitor is the only process that should be in the notification area. The others, I’m not sure. maybe they should be applets. I’m not necessarily a fan of the mac-type dock, but that approach seems to solve this particular problem.
Anyway, keep up the good work.
Some guy: That’s true, the notification area is used for all kinds of things, and not for what it’s designed for. But we can do little about it, many applications have made it their home, we can at least make it look nice. Tough I’d rather have them appearing in the notification area than having to manually add applets for every application, and having useless applets when those applications are not active.
The thing is, it seems that applets are way too hard to install by a user. And it seems to be hard to program one too.
So maybe we need some “helper” to allow applications to easily register an applet.
Or/and maybe we need a special area where those applications should go.
tuXXX: Yeah, I think it’s time to search for a completely different model for notifications/launchers/window lists etc. It can be done better than OS X, but I don’t think it will happen anytime soon.
I don’t think that reducing the icon size to 16×16 by default is the right solution; reducing their size just makes them harder to make out, and makes any changes (such as Pidgin’s notifications on new messages) harder to notice.
I agree with you Hylke, there are so many many many issues with our current panel. Due to the fact it is designed to be SO flexible to suit many customizations, it produces inconsistency in style, for eg. panel in righ/left vs top/bottom, notification icon does not scale along panel size, etc.
If I were the board member, I would propose a fixed position panel like Mac with a very strict guideline. Speaking of the impossibility here though..
“So maybe we need some “helper” to allow applications to easily register an applet.
Or/and maybe we need a special area where those applications should go.”
is that sarcasm? because it sounds like you’re describing the notification area
I am sure this queston falls outside of the scope of your SOC program, but maybe you could give some tip or clue to finding a solution.
I have a dual monitor setup. I am not using xinerama. :
echo $DISPLAY(left monitor):0.0
echo $DISPLAY(right monitor):0.1
(the reason for this setup is that opengl sync does not work using multiple monitors -which means no compiz goodness with 2 monitors-ie. xv fails to sync and prevents being able to play videos when compiz is enabled)
Now how does this pertain to the system notification area. Simple. I have been unable to find out how to specify exactly which monitor and which panel (I have 4) should be the holding place for the notification area.
I looked around in gconf and saw settings which looked promising but they are undocumented and none of my attempts were successful to change the location from the left monitor to the right monitor.
So do you have any clues if this is actually possible and if so what step one might take to make it work..
thanks
Karl Zollner
Container for the notification area : ok.
Box around each launcher : useless : it produces more clutter, and the icon itself is the but, no need to pack it into a container.
Beautiful! Please make this go upstream!
some guy:
i don’t know why opera/banshee need either an applet or an icon, utter nonsense IMHO.
nm-APPLET should also only have an notification ICON if really something interesting is happening (this does not include showing “wired connection” for hours and days, no connection should also rather popup a dialog which can be dismissed).
Hylke:
Pidgin and tomboy applets would seldomly be useless as both are more or less active over the whole session, so they would definetly be okay (volume-control is an applet too, although not so often used).
the container-idea is excellent, as it distinguishes notifications more from applets. the current design actually encourages programmers to use the easier-to-hack notification area, as it looks exactly the same like an applet. Given the current trend we are not far away from windows’ horrible “hide inactive tray icons” option.
Wow, just nice!
Would be great to see just a Theme soon
greets,
Karl
@tcommbee Exactly!!! After reading all the replies I started thinking of “hide inactive tray icons” as a possible solution, though an ugly one.
@tuXXX Applets don’t have to be tricky to develop. A large part of the problem there is lack of documentation, and that fact that things like resizing and background colour/transparency aren’t handled automatically.
@hylke: just noticed the volume control on your screen shot is IN the notification area! Do you use some non-default control? if this is going to be standard soon, i don’t know how anyone could possibly call this NOTIFICATION-area anymore.
The gnome HIG urgently needs to state some suggestions how to add panel-applets on installation (by d’n'd or otherwise). There should be no more than 3 or 4 “notifications” at any moment. You have already 4 without being notified of anything….
tcommbee: I just put the volume applet in there just to fill the space, but I do think it’s a good position for it. My suggestion would be to call the notification area a “status area” or someting. It monitors hardware, connections and applications that are “service”-like (Pidgin, not Banshee). Things that are open all the time but are wasting precious space when they have to be listed in the window list all the time.
It’s possible to add your applet ideas to the GNOME HIG, but developers don’t take it to seriously anyway, hence the abuse of the notification area.
I think the whole concept of a notification area is flawed. Are they really notifications, or are they just little shortcut icons to applications?
How is it really any different from the window list applet. For example:
Get rid of the application window title from the window list buttons and you essentially have an icon that behaves much like the notification area…
Okay, maybe it’s a silly idea!
Forgot to say I like your mockup!
Just had an additional thought:
Looking at the different elements, you see icons, and icons with text beside them. I wonder if you could unify everything into one “unified launcher”. Add the ability to add text beside icons if desired. Add the ability to provide custom right click menu.
Even better, add the ability to open running application on click, instead of launching a new window/app!
James Earl: Not silly at all, I had the same kind of idea.
Hi!
Would this be possible? It would be nice as theme/ui for the next Gnome, far more attractive!
Warren: Everything is possible, only we need someone who is willing to put time in it to create it.
Hi! Which icon package are you using? KTHXBYE xD
asker: http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=69950
Hylke: thank you, however I think it’s not the Discovery theme, but some theme based on it, because:
1- The icons in this theme look more like “real objects”, than those in the Discovery theme;
2- The Home Folder in this theme cannot be found in the Discovery Theme.
Does anyone know if this is a little modification, or another theme?
KTHXBYE xD
asker: The icons in the mockup are actually hi-res versions that did not made their way into the Discovery theme yet.
Hylke: Okkk =) I think those are some very cool icons! KTHXBYE xD
What about the gtk theme used for this screenshot. Does it exists? If so, where can we download it ?
Many thanks for your great work!
(In reply to #20, James Earl)
> How is it really any different from the window list applet.
It’s only different in terms of behavior. The notification area allows an application to have a UI representation without cluttering any window lists (e.g. the window list applet and more importantly the application switcher (ALT+TAB)).
It’s a complete misuse of the notification area according to the GNOME HIG (see draft chapter 2, ‘acceptable uses’), but at least it works.
I like the idea. Many of my backgrounds are dark, and I like to have a transparent toolbar. Since you can’t change the color of the launchers, this creates a problem, which your background solves.