hardware database notification has poor ui

[Ian Jackson]

Binary package hint: notification-daemon

When I boot the livecd (20070411 i386), I get a notification bubble at the right hand side, coming out of the lightbulb, which says "information about newly installed packages is available" and suggests that I click on the icon.

When I click on the icon, I get a window in the middle of the screen with the legend at the top "Update information", containing text headed "Ubuntu Hardware Database" with some extensive discussion and a button labelled "Run this action now".

This is all really very poor useability:

* The notification bubble is wrong in itself because I have not installed any packages. What is the computer talking about ? It doesn't make any sense. This text is also wrong because the thing that it's trying to tell me is nothing to do with "packages". (It is true that the notification was caused internally by a package, but since the whole operatng system consists of packages this is meaningless.) The text in the notification bubble should be reworded.

* It is not entirely clear which icon is meant. I had to peer at the screen slightly to see which icon the bubble was coming out of. (I have good eyesight but was sitting well away from the display and had to lean across slightly; someone with less good eyesight might have to peer intently or just be confused.) An additional cue should be provided (eg, text saying to click on the lightbulb icon, or an edge to the bubble which contrasts better with the desktop and top panel backgrounds).

* The window that appears when I click on the icon has no window title in the titlebar. Instead the title "Update information" is inside the window.

* The phrase "Update information" is confusing. Does it mean that I should be updating some information ? (I happen to know that it means that there is some information by from with or pertaining to an update but as previously discussed this is both irrelevant to the user and false.)

* The button "Run this action now" should be labelled with a specific action. "Send hardware information" for example.

* The two buttons "Run this action now" and "Close" are opposites and should be uniformly placed rather than one "inside" the other. They are the two alternative ways to dismiss the window.

* The actual running text in the dialogue box is weirdly worded and should be reworded by a native English speaker with a strong political bent.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Michael, do you have an idea how to make the u-n notifications less package-upgrade centric?

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

I think we should have a new key in the hook file to allow overwriting the information type. Something like
InformationType: PackageUpgrade|GenericInformation
(and possible more). And then alter the text accordingly.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

If we change any strings now, we need to send a mail to ubuntu-translators to ensure they know about this.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

There is no reason to have edgy tasks here.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

It's too late to do this properly for Feisty. I'm afraid we'll need to disable this notification.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Disabled in Feisty, leaving at Tollef's discretion whether he lets that onto the RC images:

 hwdb-client (0.6.10) feisty; urgency=low
 .
   * Disable hwdb-client-common postinst for Feisty, the notification needs to
     be prettified. (LP: #105510)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

no change to do on feisty now, closing

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Parts of this is fixed now, but other issues are still open:

update-notifier (0.57) gutsy; urgency=low

  * implemented new "Title" key in the UpgradeHooks file
    (for IncreaseHardwareDatabasePariticipation spec)

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

We use the following term in the bubble now:

"Information available"
"Click on the notification icon"
" to show the available information.\n"

now. I close the update-notifier task now as the required bits are in place now.

Thanks,
 Michael

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

The hwdb-client package has been removed from Ubuntu. Closing all related bugs.