Activity log for bug #552920

Date Who What changed Old value New value Message
2010-03-31 23:01:17 Bálint Magyar bug added bug
2010-03-31 23:01:17 Bálint Magyar attachment added Why_autoexpanding_indicators_are_a_bad_idea.png http://launchpadlibrarian.net/42732636/Why_autoexpanding_indicators_are_a_bad_idea.png
2010-03-31 23:01:17 Bálint Magyar attachment added Dependencies.txt http://launchpadlibrarian.net/42731591/Dependencies.txt
2010-04-01 17:43:03 Sense Egbert Hofstede description Binary package hint: indicator-application Application indicators are tiny buttons that spawn wide menus. Since other indicator menus autoexpand if the cursor hovers over another indicator (much like regular window menus), the previous menu disappears. This is not THAT big of a problem (although I would argue that it still is one) with regular window menus because most items are wider than a single icon. However where this becomes REALLY prominent and annoying is indicator-sound, because chances are a user clicks the applet most of the time to set the volume. I think it's safe to assume that most of the time the volume is not zero, which means the slider is way over the boundary created by the indicator icon. I have excellent hand-eye coordination and even I have sometimes found myself struggling with the applet, accidentally expanding the message indicator menu several times before being able to adjust the volume, because the optimal path for my cursor movement crosses the menu item boundary on the right side. (See attached screenshot.) I think a good solution would be to introduce a slight delay (no more than a few hundred milliseconds) before a neighboring indicator applet menu gets autoexpanded. In the long run, this could be given some thought with regards to regular menu items as well. Could the delay work? Or would making all menu items wider within the theme be a more feasible workaround? I think this would deserve some actual usability testing time. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04 Package: indicator-application 0.0.18-0ubuntu1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-18.27-generic 2.6.32.10+drm33.1 Uname: Linux 2.6.32-18-generic i686 Architecture: i386 Date: Thu Apr 1 00:43:59 2010 EcryptfsInUse: Yes ProcEnviron: PATH=(custom, user) LANG=en_US.utf8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: indicator-application Binary package hint: indicator-application Application Indicators are tiny icons with large menus. When you've opened one such menu you can browse through the others simply by moving your mouse of the other icons. However, this does cause problems when you quickly want to go to one of the menu items. As illustrated in the attached screenshot you often go over neighbouring icons. This closes the menu with the menu item you were planning to click and opens the other. A solution would be to use a timer for the 'auto-expanding' feature. From an IRC conversation on this bug: "<bratsche> Okay, so gtk+ has something internal called (I think) a stay-up triangle.. but as far as I know, it's only used when dealing with submenus from a menu. But try to envision a menu with several menuitems, and the first menuitem has a submenu with several menuitems. Your mouse is currently over the top menuitem of the parent menu and the submenu from it is open to the right. Now when you move the mouse toward say the middle of that submenu, you'll probably mouse-over a menuitem below the current one in the parent menu.. But there are two things that can keep it from becoming the active menuitem.. a timer, and this stay-up triangle. <bratsche> Anyway, we should think about this some. Indicator icons are small enough that in the case of indicator-sound, going to all the trouble of duplicating this stay-up triangle might be more trouble than it's worth. Judging by the screenshot in qense's bug, the stay-up triangle would cover most the majority of the neighboring indicator icon anyway, so maybe a simple timer would be enough." ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04 Package: indicator-application 0.0.18-0ubuntu1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-18.27-generic 2.6.32.10+drm33.1 Uname: Linux 2.6.32-18-generic i686 Architecture: i386 Date: Thu Apr 1 00:43:59 2010 EcryptfsInUse: Yes ProcEnviron: PATH=(custom, user) LANG=en_US.utf8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: indicator-application
2010-04-01 17:44:35 Sense Egbert Hofstede indicator-application (Ubuntu): importance Undecided Low
2010-04-01 17:44:35 Sense Egbert Hofstede indicator-application (Ubuntu): status New Triaged
2010-04-01 17:44:55 Sense Egbert Hofstede bug task added indicator-application
2010-04-01 17:45:47 Sense Egbert Hofstede indicator-application: status New Confirmed
2010-04-01 17:46:13 Sense Egbert Hofstede summary Autoexpanding indicator menus hurt usability Auto-expanding AppIndicator menus makes navigating to menu items harder
2010-05-21 15:52:14 Ted Gould indicator-application: status Confirmed Invalid
2010-05-21 15:53:09 Ted Gould affects indicator-application (Ubuntu) gtk+2.0 (Ubuntu)
2010-05-21 15:53:28 Ted Gould gtk+2.0 (Ubuntu): assignee Cody Russell (bratsche)
2010-08-25 10:32:43 Sebastien Bacher removed subscriber Canonical Desktop Team
2010-12-02 13:46:56 Matthew Paul Thomas description Binary package hint: indicator-application Application Indicators are tiny icons with large menus. When you've opened one such menu you can browse through the others simply by moving your mouse of the other icons. However, this does cause problems when you quickly want to go to one of the menu items. As illustrated in the attached screenshot you often go over neighbouring icons. This closes the menu with the menu item you were planning to click and opens the other. A solution would be to use a timer for the 'auto-expanding' feature. From an IRC conversation on this bug: "<bratsche> Okay, so gtk+ has something internal called (I think) a stay-up triangle.. but as far as I know, it's only used when dealing with submenus from a menu. But try to envision a menu with several menuitems, and the first menuitem has a submenu with several menuitems. Your mouse is currently over the top menuitem of the parent menu and the submenu from it is open to the right. Now when you move the mouse toward say the middle of that submenu, you'll probably mouse-over a menuitem below the current one in the parent menu.. But there are two things that can keep it from becoming the active menuitem.. a timer, and this stay-up triangle. <bratsche> Anyway, we should think about this some. Indicator icons are small enough that in the case of indicator-sound, going to all the trouble of duplicating this stay-up triangle might be more trouble than it's worth. Judging by the screenshot in qense's bug, the stay-up triangle would cover most the majority of the neighboring indicator icon anyway, so maybe a simple timer would be enough." ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04 Package: indicator-application 0.0.18-0ubuntu1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-18.27-generic 2.6.32.10+drm33.1 Uname: Linux 2.6.32-18-generic i686 Architecture: i386 Date: Thu Apr 1 00:43:59 2010 EcryptfsInUse: Yes ProcEnviron: PATH=(custom, user) LANG=en_US.utf8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: indicator-application gtk 2.22, Ubuntu 10.10 1. Click on the volume control to open the sound menu. 2. Move the pointer diagonally to click on the maximum volume button. What often happens: The sound menu closes, and the menu next to it opens. Screnshot: https://launchpadlibrarian.net/42732636/Why_autoexpanding_indicators_are_a_bad_idea.png Screencast: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVUokjAlREs> What should happen: The sound menu stays open. A solution would be to use a timer for the 'auto-expanding' feature. From an IRC conversation on this bug: "<bratsche> Okay, so gtk+ has something internal called (I think) a stay-up triangle.. but as far as I know, it's only used when dealing with submenus from a menu.  But try to envision a menu with several menuitems, and the first menuitem has a submenu with several menuitems. Your mouse is currently over the top menuitem of the parent menu and the submenu from it is open to the right.  Now when you move the mouse toward say the middle of that submenu, you'll probably mouse-over a menuitem below the current one in the parent menu..  But there are two things that can keep it from becoming the active menuitem.. a timer, and this stay-up triangle. <bratsche> Anyway, we should think about this some. Indicator icons are small enough that in the case of indicator-sound, going to all the trouble of duplicating this stay-up triangle might be more trouble than it's worth. Judging by the screenshot in qense's bug, the stay-up triangle would cover most the majority of the neighboring indicator icon anyway, so maybe a simple timer would be enough." Illustration of the invisible triangle for submenus: <http://www.quinn.echidna.id.au/Quinn/WWW/HISubtleties/HierarchicalMenus.html> Discussion of the invisible triangle for submenus in GTK: <http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2000-May/msg00118.html>
2010-12-02 13:48:00 Matthew Paul Thomas summary Auto-expanding AppIndicator menus makes navigating to menu items harder Moving diagonally from narrow menu title often opens adjacent menu
2010-12-04 17:39:29 Vish affects indicator-application hundredpapercuts
2010-12-04 17:39:29 Vish hundredpapercuts: status Invalid New
2010-12-04 17:42:40 Vish hundredpapercuts: importance Undecided Low
2010-12-04 17:42:40 Vish hundredpapercuts: status New Triaged
2010-12-04 17:42:40 Vish hundredpapercuts: milestone nt7-potpourri
2010-12-04 17:42:59 Vish hundredpapercuts: assignee Papercuts Ninja (papercuts-ninja)
2010-12-04 19:30:51 Mohamed Amine Ilidrissi bug added subscriber Mohamed Amine IL Idrissi
2010-12-13 06:25:58 David bug added subscriber David
2010-12-13 10:13:47 Omer Akram bug added subscriber Omer Akram
2010-12-13 15:23:06 Jeremy Nickurak bug added subscriber Jeremy Nickurak
2010-12-15 11:30:39 Paul Sladen description gtk 2.22, Ubuntu 10.10 1. Click on the volume control to open the sound menu. 2. Move the pointer diagonally to click on the maximum volume button. What often happens: The sound menu closes, and the menu next to it opens. Screnshot: https://launchpadlibrarian.net/42732636/Why_autoexpanding_indicators_are_a_bad_idea.png Screencast: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVUokjAlREs> What should happen: The sound menu stays open. A solution would be to use a timer for the 'auto-expanding' feature. From an IRC conversation on this bug: "<bratsche> Okay, so gtk+ has something internal called (I think) a stay-up triangle.. but as far as I know, it's only used when dealing with submenus from a menu.  But try to envision a menu with several menuitems, and the first menuitem has a submenu with several menuitems. Your mouse is currently over the top menuitem of the parent menu and the submenu from it is open to the right.  Now when you move the mouse toward say the middle of that submenu, you'll probably mouse-over a menuitem below the current one in the parent menu..  But there are two things that can keep it from becoming the active menuitem.. a timer, and this stay-up triangle. <bratsche> Anyway, we should think about this some. Indicator icons are small enough that in the case of indicator-sound, going to all the trouble of duplicating this stay-up triangle might be more trouble than it's worth. Judging by the screenshot in qense's bug, the stay-up triangle would cover most the majority of the neighboring indicator icon anyway, so maybe a simple timer would be enough." Illustration of the invisible triangle for submenus: <http://www.quinn.echidna.id.au/Quinn/WWW/HISubtleties/HierarchicalMenus.html> Discussion of the invisible triangle for submenus in GTK: <http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2000-May/msg00118.html> gtk 2.22, Ubuntu 10.10 1. Click on the volume control to open the sound menu. 2. Move the pointer diagonally to click on the maximum volume button. What often happens: The sound menu closes, and the menu next to it opens. Screnshot: https://launchpadlibrarian.net/42732636/Why_autoexpanding_indicators_are_a_bad_idea.png Screencast: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVUokjAlREs> What should happen: The sound menu stays open. A solution would be to use a timer for the 'auto-expanding' feature. From an IRC conversation on this bug: "<bratsche> Okay, so gtk+ has something internal called (I think) a stay-up triangle.. but as far as I know, it's only used when dealing with submenus from a menu.  But try to envision a menu with several menuitems, and the first menuitem has a submenu with several menuitems. Your mouse is currently over the top menuitem of the parent menu and the submenu from it is open to the right.  Now when you move the mouse toward say the middle of that submenu, you'll probably mouse-over a menuitem below the current one in the parent menu..  But there are two things that can keep it from becoming the active menuitem.. a timer, and this stay-up triangle. <bratsche> Anyway, we should think about this some. Indicator icons are small enough that in the case of indicator-sound, going to all the trouble of duplicating this stay-up triangle might be more trouble than it's worth. Judging by the screenshot in qense's bug, the stay-up triangle would cover most the majority of the neighboring indicator icon anyway, so maybe a simple timer would be enough." Illustration of the invisible triangle for submenus: <http://www.quinn.echidna.id.au/Quinn/WWW/HISubtleties/HierarchicalMenus.html> Discussion of the invisible triangle for submenus in GTK: <http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2000-May/msg00118.html> Gtk+ already has triangular bounding boxes for sub-menus. This code should also be applied to the top-level and not just the sub-menus.
2011-03-24 11:14:31 Robert Roth bug added subscriber Robert Roth
2011-08-22 20:41:43 Omer Akram bug task added gtk+3.0 (Ubuntu)
2011-08-22 20:45:23 Omer Akram bug task added unity
2011-08-22 20:47:03 Launchpad Janitor gtk+3.0 (Ubuntu): status New Confirmed
2011-08-22 22:28:08 Yann Dìnendal bug added subscriber Yann Dìnendal
2011-09-06 11:54:23 Omer Akram unity: importance Undecided Medium
2011-09-06 11:54:26 Omer Akram unity: status New Triaged
2011-09-06 11:54:31 Omer Akram gtk+2.0 (Ubuntu): assignee Cody Russell (bratsche)
2011-09-06 11:54:41 Omer Akram gtk+3.0 (Ubuntu): importance Undecided Low
2011-09-06 11:54:44 Omer Akram gtk+3.0 (Ubuntu): status Confirmed Triaged
2011-09-30 15:02:39 Didier Roche-Tolomelli unity (Ubuntu): status New Triaged
2011-10-05 08:59:52 Marcus Sundman bug added subscriber Marcus Sundman
2012-02-09 18:34:42 Omer Akram unity (Ubuntu): importance Undecided Medium
2012-04-03 10:12:53 Thibaut Brandscheid tags apport-bug i386 lucid apport-bug i386 precise ux
2012-06-07 02:27:00 Arthur Tan bug added subscriber Arthur Tan
2012-06-07 07:48:50 Andrea Corbellini bug added subscriber Andrea Corbellini
2012-06-07 22:21:52 manny bug added subscriber manny
2012-08-17 16:51:58 Edward Donovan bug added subscriber Edward Donovan
2012-11-28 22:34:34 Chris Wilson hundredpapercuts: milestone nt7-potpourri raring-gtk
2012-12-06 17:42:12 Matthew Paul Thomas description gtk 2.22, Ubuntu 10.10 1. Click on the volume control to open the sound menu. 2. Move the pointer diagonally to click on the maximum volume button. What often happens: The sound menu closes, and the menu next to it opens. Screnshot: https://launchpadlibrarian.net/42732636/Why_autoexpanding_indicators_are_a_bad_idea.png Screencast: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVUokjAlREs> What should happen: The sound menu stays open. A solution would be to use a timer for the 'auto-expanding' feature. From an IRC conversation on this bug: "<bratsche> Okay, so gtk+ has something internal called (I think) a stay-up triangle.. but as far as I know, it's only used when dealing with submenus from a menu.  But try to envision a menu with several menuitems, and the first menuitem has a submenu with several menuitems. Your mouse is currently over the top menuitem of the parent menu and the submenu from it is open to the right.  Now when you move the mouse toward say the middle of that submenu, you'll probably mouse-over a menuitem below the current one in the parent menu..  But there are two things that can keep it from becoming the active menuitem.. a timer, and this stay-up triangle. <bratsche> Anyway, we should think about this some. Indicator icons are small enough that in the case of indicator-sound, going to all the trouble of duplicating this stay-up triangle might be more trouble than it's worth. Judging by the screenshot in qense's bug, the stay-up triangle would cover most the majority of the neighboring indicator icon anyway, so maybe a simple timer would be enough." Illustration of the invisible triangle for submenus: <http://www.quinn.echidna.id.au/Quinn/WWW/HISubtleties/HierarchicalMenus.html> Discussion of the invisible triangle for submenus in GTK: <http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2000-May/msg00118.html> Gtk+ already has triangular bounding boxes for sub-menus. This code should also be applied to the top-level and not just the sub-menus. gtk 2.22, Ubuntu 10.10 1. Click on the volume control to open the sound menu. 2. Move the pointer diagonally to click on the maximum volume button. What often happens: The sound menu closes, and the menu next to it opens. Screnshot: https://launchpadlibrarian.net/42732636/Why_autoexpanding_indicators_are_a_bad_idea.png Screencast: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVUokjAlREs> Example in an informal usability test: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=PgGbZfR6Vec#t=13m55s> What should happen: The sound menu stays open. A solution would be to use a timer for the 'auto-expanding' feature. From an IRC conversation on this bug: "<bratsche> Okay, so gtk+ has something internal called (I think) a stay-up triangle.. but as far as I know, it's only used when dealing with submenus from a menu.  But try to envision a menu with several menuitems, and the first menuitem has a submenu with several menuitems. Your mouse is currently over the top menuitem of the parent menu and the submenu from it is open to the right.  Now when you move the mouse toward say the middle of that submenu, you'll probably mouse-over a menuitem below the current one in the parent menu..  But there are two things that can keep it from becoming the active menuitem.. a timer, and this stay-up triangle. <bratsche> Anyway, we should think about this some. Indicator icons are small enough that in the case of indicator-sound, going to all the trouble of duplicating this stay-up triangle might be more trouble than it's worth. Judging by the screenshot in qense's bug, the stay-up triangle would cover most the majority of the neighboring indicator icon anyway, so maybe a simple timer would be enough." Illustration of the invisible triangle for submenus: <http://www.quinn.echidna.id.au/Quinn/WWW/HISubtleties/HierarchicalMenus.html> Discussion of the invisible triangle for submenus in GTK: <http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2000-May/msg00118.html> Gtk+ already has triangular bounding boxes for sub-menus. This code should also be applied to the top-level and not just the sub-menus.
2013-05-13 18:21:25 Curtis Hovey removed subscriber Registry Administrators
2014-05-24 17:22:09 Alberto Salvia Novella hundredpapercuts: assignee Papercuts Ninjas (papercuts-ninja)
2015-05-05 11:13:32 Matthew Paul Thomas description gtk 2.22, Ubuntu 10.10 1. Click on the volume control to open the sound menu. 2. Move the pointer diagonally to click on the maximum volume button. What often happens: The sound menu closes, and the menu next to it opens. Screnshot: https://launchpadlibrarian.net/42732636/Why_autoexpanding_indicators_are_a_bad_idea.png Screencast: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVUokjAlREs> Example in an informal usability test: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=PgGbZfR6Vec#t=13m55s> What should happen: The sound menu stays open. A solution would be to use a timer for the 'auto-expanding' feature. From an IRC conversation on this bug: "<bratsche> Okay, so gtk+ has something internal called (I think) a stay-up triangle.. but as far as I know, it's only used when dealing with submenus from a menu.  But try to envision a menu with several menuitems, and the first menuitem has a submenu with several menuitems. Your mouse is currently over the top menuitem of the parent menu and the submenu from it is open to the right.  Now when you move the mouse toward say the middle of that submenu, you'll probably mouse-over a menuitem below the current one in the parent menu..  But there are two things that can keep it from becoming the active menuitem.. a timer, and this stay-up triangle. <bratsche> Anyway, we should think about this some. Indicator icons are small enough that in the case of indicator-sound, going to all the trouble of duplicating this stay-up triangle might be more trouble than it's worth. Judging by the screenshot in qense's bug, the stay-up triangle would cover most the majority of the neighboring indicator icon anyway, so maybe a simple timer would be enough." Illustration of the invisible triangle for submenus: <http://www.quinn.echidna.id.au/Quinn/WWW/HISubtleties/HierarchicalMenus.html> Discussion of the invisible triangle for submenus in GTK: <http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2000-May/msg00118.html> Gtk+ already has triangular bounding boxes for sub-menus. This code should also be applied to the top-level and not just the sub-menus. gtk 2.22, Ubuntu 10.10 1. Click on the volume control to open the sound menu. 2. Move the pointer diagonally to click on the maximum volume button. <https://launchpadlibrarian.net/42732636/Why_autoexpanding_indicators_are_a_bad_idea.png> What often happens: The sound menu closes, and the menu next to it opens. Screencast: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVUokjAlREs> Example in an informal usability test: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=PgGbZfR6Vec#t=13m55s> What should happen: The sound menu stays open. One solution would be to make the volume slider vertical. But this would not work for other menus (like the Bluetooth menu), and would look awkward with other items in the menu. Another solution would be to use a timer for closing the current menu and opening a new one. This is what Windows does for submenus. But it has the drawback of slowing down browsing, which would be worse for top-level menus than for submenus. GTK already has a more sophisticated solution for submenus, similar to Mac OS: a triangle based on the corners of the submenu and its parent item, in which there is a much longer delay for closing the submenu and changing the menu selection. <http://www.quinn.echidna.id.au/Quinn/WWW/HISubtleties/HierarchicalMenus.html> Discussion of the invisible triangle for submenus in GTK: <http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2000-May/msg00118.html> However, this feature in Gtk+ has been broken since July 2013. <https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=710388> The code, once fixed, should be applied to menu titles as well. More information: <http://thomaspark.co/2011/10/making-menus-escapable/>
2015-05-05 17:28:40 周成瑞 removed subscriber Yongzhi Pan
2015-08-11 15:41:17 Andrea Azzarone tags apport-bug i386 precise ux 16.04-hit-list apport-bug i386 precise ux
2015-08-11 15:42:54 Andrea Azzarone unity: status Triaged In Progress
2015-08-11 15:42:58 Andrea Azzarone unity (Ubuntu): status Triaged In Progress
2015-08-11 15:43:03 Andrea Azzarone unity (Ubuntu): assignee Andrea Azzarone (azzar1)
2015-08-11 15:43:05 Andrea Azzarone unity: assignee Andrea Azzarone (azzar1)
2015-08-11 15:43:07 Andrea Azzarone unity: milestone 7.3.3
2015-08-11 16:28:33 Launchpad Janitor branch linked lp:~azzar1/unity/lp-552920
2015-08-11 21:58:22 Andrea Azzarone tags 16.04-hit-list apport-bug i386 precise ux 16.04-hit-list apport-bug i386 precise rls-w-incoming ux
2015-09-21 21:02:44 Launchpad Janitor unity (Ubuntu): status In Progress Fix Released
2015-09-22 08:55:18 Marco Trevisan (Treviño) unity: status In Progress Fix Committed
2015-10-26 15:44:12 Marco Trevisan (Treviño) unity: status Fix Committed Fix Released
2015-10-30 14:24:22 Marco Trevisan (Treviño) tags 16.04-hit-list apport-bug i386 precise rls-w-incoming ux 16.04-hit-list apport-bug i386 precise rls-x-incoming ux
2016-02-15 10:18:16 Will Cooke tags 16.04-hit-list apport-bug i386 precise rls-x-incoming ux 16.04-hit-list apport-bug i386 precise ux