Use a slight gradient in notifications

[David Prieto]

Binary package hint: notify-osd

Hi,

The current look of notifications, while elegant, seems a bit "naked", in that it is a plain colour. I made a quick mockup with a couple modifications, which improve the looks of notifications, in my opinion.

-There is a completely black border, with a width of one pixel.
-Inside, the notifications have a slight gradient effect.

I'm attaching a mockup. I also opened a thread in ubuntuforums, http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1120533, where people can vote. So far the modified version seems to be winning.

[[e-mail] (j.scott.gwin)]

Thanks for thinking of this, it helps make Ubuntu better. Confirmed.

[David Prieto (frandavid100-gmail)]

Thanks for taking it into consideration :)

[Mat Tomaszewski (mat.t.)]

Thanks for your suggestion David. The simple look of the bubble helps reinforce the non-interactive character of the notifications. Adding borders, gradients, etc may be a nice visual touch, but in the case of your mockup the border is very harsh, giving it a "cartoony" feel, which may not be a good direction. Also, adding the border and gradiented background suggests a more "solid" surface, which should be reserved for the UI elements that do not have a click-through property.

I encourage you to get involved in the Ubuntu design community (if you haven't already!) and contribute there - your design is interesting and it is great that you care about how Ubuntu looks.

For your bug to be valid though, you have to first present a convincing case why the current design is broken. It is not enough to just say "I think it should be different". Everyone has a different taste and we cannot base UI design decisions on this.

Thanks again for your involvement.

[Mat Tomaszewski (mat.t.)]

One more thing to consider before you propose such change - how would you display the gradient when the bubble grows to its
maximum size?

[David Prieto (frandavid100-gmail)]

Hi Mat,

I'm afraid I don't have a definite case where the current design is wrong; I have proposed this purely because I find it more aesthetically pleasing, and as you said, because it has a more solid feel. I do not think that it would substract from its non-interactive character, but that, of course, is just my opinion.

Matthew Paul Thomas, however, wrote this in the thread I opened in Ubuntuforums: "That might help us solve a problem we have at the moment where bubbles look nearly invisible against a dark background. (There are other ways we could solve the problem, though, such as a completely different appearance that more closely matches your chosen theme.)"

Regarding your second question, I think the gradient should start with colour A at the top of the bubble, then finish with B at the bottom. The middle of the bubble should be 50% A and 50% B right at the middle, regardless of the size of the bubble. So if the bubble grows, the gradient should just be redistributed.

I'm attaching a new mockup, with the gradient but without the border, just for comparison with the two previous images.

Again, thanks for your consideration.

[Mirco Müller (macslow)]

As long as the gradient is perpendicular (either vertical or horizontal) this does not conflict with my plans to optimize rendering (especially blurring of the bubbles content). But as soon as anybody comes up with diagonal gradients, I'll tar, feather and curse him/her ... and just won't consider implement it, because it tosses away nice optimizing potential ;-)

[Mirco Müller (macslow)]

With the blur-cache in place now (needed for the "blur on hover"-effect) it is not possible to draw a non-homogenous pattern in the bubble-background.