Since the Ubuntu-Monochrome 0.0.26 upload, the battery status icon now goes critical red with over an hour to spare.
We need to confirm this in Ayatana-Design, but my hunch is the following would be more useful:
external power: normal text colour (ivory/chocolate for Ambiance/Radiance)
>=1:00 remaining: normal text colour
< 1:00 remaining: orange non-critical warning
<=0:10 remaining: red critical warning
<=0:02 remaining: red critical warning if suspend/hibernate action selected and proven working
<=0:02 remaining: red critical (flashing) warning if simply going to power-off
Additionally, the Ubuntu Mono 0.0.26 change uses a battery icon with no fill for empty. This is not as clear to the user as an icon that instead uses a very small fill at end of the battery, even for zero. This is more intuitive as it makes it clear that the icon is used as a percentage indicator; with an empty fill the user must already know this for "empty" to be useful as a relative indicator. At the moment for "Red with some left" seen at (on this laptop) 1:10 remaining is far more visible that the more serious empty icon.
Binary package hint: ubuntu-mono
Since the Ubuntu-Monochrome 0.0.26 upload, the battery status icon now goes critical red with over an hour to spare.
We need to confirm this in Ayatana-Design, but my hunch is the following would be more useful:
external power: normal text colour (ivory/chocolate for Ambiance/Radiance)
>=1:00 remaining: normal text colour
< 1:00 remaining: orange non-critical warning
<=0:10 remaining: red critical warning
<=0:02 remaining: red critical warning if suspend/hibernate action selected and proven working
<=0:02 remaining: red critical (flashing) warning if simply going to power-off
Additionally, the Ubuntu Mono 0.0.26 change uses a battery icon with no fill for empty. This is not as clear to the user as an icon that instead uses a very small fill at end of the battery, even for zero. This is more intuitive as it makes it clear that the icon is used as a percentage indicator; with an empty fill the user must already know this for "empty" to be useful as a relative indicator. At the moment for "Red with some left" seen at (on this laptop) 1:10 remaining is far more visible that the more serious empty icon.