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

Hi Matthew,

(sending again, cause I'm not sure the original email made it to the 
list, because of wrong sending email address).

Some "random" answers to the thread:

- Tab animations are off by default because this is the only animation 
that can alter large fractions of the screen, and thus stress low 
performance systems too much. As far as I know this is not the case for 
labels, hover effects, etc.

- as Nuno mentioned, I don't think label animations alter the display in 
any way that prevent the user to interact with it. If such circumstances 
exist, they should obviously be fixed. Now, yes, this makes label text 
change non instantaneous (which was the original plan). Whether one 
finds it boring/slow (your case), or smooth/natural (my case) is a 
matter of personal taste, I think. I wonder what the "average" taste is, 
and am today unable to decide. One way would be: fill-in a wish on 
kde-bugs, see how many votes it gets. (I'll take care of duplicates if 
any). Any other suggestions is welcome. Nuno ? Feel like doing a pol on 
your website ? As far as I know reviews found on the web on animated 
oxygen in kde4.4 have been quite positive so far.

- on the possibility to turn off the label animation and keep the 
others, that was my original plan: see 
http://imagebin.ca/view/5EEwfSKB.html for the original configuration 
options, which was unfortunately rejected by usability folks (with valid 
arguments: I am not complaining).

In fact you still can turn off the label animations only, by editing 
~/.kde/share/config/oxygenrc, adding:

LabelTransitionsEnabled=false


in the [style] section.



I know this is not an option, nor a fix, and would be more than eager
to implement a more appropriate configuration dialog that would make
both you/me/usability folks happy.


- On the possibility of enabling the animation on a per widget basis, I 
am not sure I get the point. If this is:
a/ animate some labels and some not, this is not possible without 
modifying applications.
b/ have three options of "animations" (all kinds), like All; Some (= 
e.g. all and not label, and not tabs); None; this is doable. But one 
will never make every one happy. Some will want labels but not tabs, 
some tabs, but not label, etc. Who decides that ?

In the meanwhile I would rather keep the label on (and I understand Nuno 
agrees), and fix places where it is broken (since you mention it in your 
original email, don't hesitate to forward such cases. I'd be happy to 
fix, since this is obviously not acceptable).

Finally:
Label text change needing to be instantaneous also applies (with the 
same arguments) to hover, focus, etc, in my opinion. So that turning off 
all animations at once because they make the system feels slower does 
not sound so crazy to me. (In other words: I don't understand why label 
transitions should be "more" instantaneous than hover, or focus effects).

Comments welcome,

Hugo
> 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').
>

______________________________________________________________________________
[email protected] |  https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-artists