Indicator applets breaks usability

[Joe_Bishop]

When the apps used notification area applets they were quite consistent: left click to show app window, right click to options. Today there is no "show" action but only options (looks different from the rest of the apps too). So, in order to show application window user need to find a point in a menu then activate it. But, unfortunately, these "menu points" are in different positions for different apps, this breaks usability.

BTW, "show window" always was the most used action for most apps. Was there any research that proved current indicator approach is better usable than old one? Personally, I'm very doubt about it, especially after new "keyboard indicator" applet.

[Sense Egbert Hofstede (sense)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug. The decision to choose for allowing only one action -- a menu at the left mouse button -- was made deliberately to make the system tray consistent and simple. People wanting much more shouldn't be using a tray icon.

So for that I'm referring you to the design documentation at <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopExperienceTeam/ApplicationIndicators>. If you think it is worth to go through this again you should try the mailing list of the Ayatana project. You can subscribe to it by joining the 'ayatana' team: <https://launchpad.net/~ayatana>.

However, the issue of the different places and approaches used for the "Show Application" menu item is a valid issue. I'm transforming this bug into a report about that.

[Joe_Bishop (denis-cheremisov-gmail)]

LOL
First they invent inexistent problem, then "solved" it, but the "solution" really caused the problem to appear. My congratulations!

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Sorry this bug report got a bit distorted, Joe. I'm restoring your original description.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Anyway. You make an interesting point that with the app indicator menus there is no longer a consistent method to show the app window.

I don't claim this problem is non-existent. However, I do think that any new inconsistency is much less than the new consistency from treating all indicators as menus.

This is because an app may have multiple equally plausible windows to show. For example, Tomboy might show you its list of notes for searching or browsing, or it might show you a window for creating a new note. I'd expect "show the app window" to do the former, but the latter would probably be more useful.

The most likely windows to show might not even be windows of the same app. For example, Dropbox might open the Dropbox folder, which is not a Dropbox app window, it's a file manager window. Or it might open the Dropbox Web site, which is also not a Dropbox app window, it's a browser window.

With indicator menus, all these possibilities are crystal clear, because they are all menu items. ("Search All Notes", "Create New Note", "Open Dropbox Folder", and "Launch Dropbox Website", respectively.) Any slowdown from opening the menu is more than compensated for by reduced dither from wondering what clicking will do.

Your example of the keyboard indicator is an even better one, because in that case there is no obvious "app" that the menu belongs to. The menu does contain items that open windows: "Character Map", "Keyboard Layout Chart", and "Text Entry Settings…". Those open windows from three different apps, and it's not clear that any of them is more important than the others. Again, having them all as menu items makes them clear.