Comment 16 for bug 883000

Well, let's get back to the initial problem, then.

Some applications (by example of Skype) have multiple windows, and need/want to notify the user when a specific window requires attention. Chat applications are the example where I noticed them, but you could come up with many examples.

I've uploaded a screenshot of how such an application might look in the window switcher. In the screenshot, I've circled the area where - I believe - previous versions of Ubuntu/Unity displayed the window icon superimposed on a snapshot of the window. http://ubuntuone.com/1aQPOvotCWxa6MaQ2mrkku

This allowed applications to indicate which of their windows needed attention, by changing the window icon of such windows. Depending on window manager, it would be possible to display the icon in the window decoration, and draw attention to a particular icon in this manner. The point is, changing a window icon is a useful and portable method for informing users of windows in need of attention.

Later versions of Ubuntu/Unity stopped displaying these window icons completely. If a particular application requires attention, that was - and is - displayed in Unity. But to drill down from that information to decide which window requires attention has become impossible without examining the window contents themselves. As such, whether by accident or design, there now exists a user experience regression in that users require extra steps and/or time to come to a decision as to which window of which app demands attention.

Now I don't care whether you just superimpose the window icon again, or find some alternate means of notifying the user of window content changes. However, as at least one application (skype) already changes window icons to inform the user, my guess is that the least effort would lie in displaying window icons again, in one form or another. As an alternative, I could envision *detecting that* a window icon has been changed at run-time, and outlining such windows differently in the window switcher, or window manager, etc. The point is, the exact mechanism doesn't matter to me, I just want to see where things have happened, and quickly.

It is entirely true that working with the Skype team to use Unity-style chat integration would be desirable; however, as a fairly interested follower of Skype's activities I would assume that your chances of successfully doing so are slim. The Linux Skype client has been all but abandoned (although it still functions just fine). Hence my remark of a vision (using the messaging menu) that the world (i.e. existing software unlikely to change) will be asked to conform to. I am sorry if that was confusing.

One last note for clarity: 'launcher icons were showing the granularity has always been by "application", so it's not really a regression' - I agree, the launcher icons were always at application granularity. The blue corner was in fact always at "whole desktop" granularity. But it used to be easy to drill down to window granularity; that is no longer the case, and for the above reasons a usability regression.

The upshot is: to use multi-window applications in which each window may notify the user of changes effectively, something in the combination of desktop environment/window manager/window switcher/launcher/etc. should enable users to quickly detect which window required attention. The specific method is irrelevant, as long as it is significantly faster than a scan through the contents of all candidate windows.

I hope this clears things up.