button autohiding makes unity harder to use

[Conall James Hanley]

I think it would be a good idea the turn off the window controls auto hiding when the window is maximized. Because it does not contribute to saving screen space or contribute to making the desktop more user friendly. In fact it makes the desktop harder to use because when a user can see the window controls before the pointer is near it, the user knows were were the pointer needs to be to either close,minimize,or restore the window. If the window controls are hidden the user will not instantly know exactly where the pointer needs to be. This change would make the simple task of closing,minimizing,restoring more complicated. The average user would want to always see the window controls when maximized.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

The pattern to follow here I believe is hit the top left edge of the screen, buttons appear (if you click on the top left edge window should close, thats not the case yet but will be soon, so closing a window will be faster than ever) and then you move the mouse to the desired control. Once the "Average" user first discover these controls he wont forget where they are, there are also things planned to improve the discoverability of those buttons and menus.

[Conall James Hanley (fire-eagle-ch)]

You are saying that any user can live with this, but is this the best approach. If you autohide every part of the user interface the user would learn where the different buttons are. This would not be as efficient as if he could see them all along. Although the user will learn where the buttons are the user cannot see them. If the user rushes in there is a chance that he will accidentally close or restore the window when he wants to minimize. So he has to pause and look at the buttons because he couldn't see them before he minimizes or he might accidentally exit his program. this change does not add anything. As for the global menus i found they were easier to use if i made them visible beforehand.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

added ayatana-design so that we officially get it marked Opinion from the designers.

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

Hm, I do not know, this is kind of highprofile, see bug 762277 which this a duplicate of, marking as such.