Re: [kde-artists] please turn off label animations...

Nuno Pinheiro wrote:
> On Wednesday, 23 de December de 2009 22:54:51 Matthew Woehlke wrote:
>> Label animations are gratuitous eye candy, contribute to making the
>> system feel 'slower', and so far (IMHO) are proving distracting (or even
>> broken) more often than enjoyable. Besides they are bad usability:
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuELwq2ThJE&hl. (Watch the first 15
>> minutes at least; after that it eventually goes into ZUI. Point is
>> oxygen is drifting too far to annoying, and animations are much of the
>> problem.)
>>
>> I think they should be OFF by default, perhaps with an option for
>> individual widgets to request them (which would make the option choices
>> 'none', 'some', 'all').
>
> this is your opinion

Sure, I /did/ say that. However I think it is backed up by professional 
usability guidance.

> most of the animations (apart from the tab animation)
> does not interfere in any way with your work, they are extremly fast and im
> most cases invisible, they are there to provide a more polished look to the
> intire experience avoiding the instant changes.

The others, maybe. The labels are not, especially with status indicators 
that need to be instantaneous. They're in the same category as tab 
animations. It sounds like you recognize that the tab animations can be 
an issue (and I'll assume you recognize that this is not merely because 
they can be slower than intended). The labels are *the exact same 
thing*, just affecting a smaller area of an interface.

As an experiment, try making a simple digital clock, and ask yourself if 
you really like the animating labels.

I'm okay with animating mouseover effects, but user interface elements 
should not "lag".

> Oxygen is not drifting it was our goal since day 1 that NOTHING would be
> instant, but rather transitory, the animations are really subtle and most
> people don't even notice them.

So long as you understand this sort of thing causes a feeling of "slowness".

Beware; you are the marketer! It is our job as developers to know when 
to /not/ listen to you. (I am not kidding; it's explained in the video.) 
It helps of course if you, as the marketer, understand the peril of your 
position and can see things from the usability perspective also. (Maybe 
you will not always succeed, but understanding is most of the battle.)

> the stuf shown so far in youtube is 3
> times slower than the real ones (you cant notece them over the video thing at
> normal speed)

Are we talking about the Google talk I linked, or some youtube Oxygen 
video I have never seen? (If the latter, did you watch the former? There 
is no need to watch all of it, just the first 10-15 minutes where he 
talks about the tension between boring and annoying.)

> plus I'm not sure you even used them
> I know many people did not notice them yet and they are using trunk.    any
> way they are all on by default except the tab one that was only on by default
> to let people find bugs in it.

Believe me, I used/noticed them. I am running trunk as of Monday at 
worst (might be yesterday). I ogled at them the first three times. Then 
I realized they are annoying. Now they are off and I intend to keep them 
off. It will be unfortunate if that means I lose mouseover animations 
(which are okay), but that's the lesser evil.

> Side note if you find oxygen animations to strong and distractive dude you are
> in for a surprise with plasma.

Really? I haven't seen plasma annoy me yet. (Though I don't have 
composite, so I don't get any of the kwin bits, just glow on hover of 
taskbar stuff. Which, as above, is different from the interface 
responding sluggishly.)

Plasma's (digital) clock (also trunk, same rev as oxygen) updates 
instantaneously.

-- 
Matthew
Please do not quote my e-mail address unobfuscated in message bodies.
-- 
"It's not easy for [Microsoft] to accept [competing fairly]"
   -- Dave Heiner (a Microsoft VP, paraphrased)

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