[Adium-devl] Privacy user interface

Fri Jun 2 14:27:54 UTC 2006

My previous design research indicates that having access to the  
privacy settings (allow all, etc) in the "BLE" is where most people  
expect it, and it makes a good deal of sense there, as otherwise it  
can be ambiguous what is actually happening in the privacy settings  
window (as it is to be renamed to that and moved to a different menu  
location.)

Also, having separate settings for each account should be possible,  
but doesn't seem to me the most expedient use pattern for the way  
people on the whole seem to use Adium.

The personal tab is a good candidate for this, but I'm very  
vehemently opposed to breaking it down on a per-account level, as  
that is the kind of UI we've been actively moving away from in Adium  
lately.

Bear in mind that all protocols (except MSN) have the capability for  
blocking types other than a blacklist, and so a UI in the style of  
the old BLE makes little sense from that perspective.

In short, I think such a redesign is insane, and probably something  
of a step backwards UI-wise from what we have now (although what we  
have now *does* need to be finished, I'll freely admit. I'm just  
tired of beating on MSN accounts and having them misbehave  
altogether, and now I can't even connect to MSN because of a "buddy  
list conflict" or some such...)

Augie

On Jun 2, 2006, at 9:05 AM, disposable at infinitenexus.com wrote:

> As I noted in the thread on this subject recently in the forums, I  
> believe at a glance access to the account(s)' state is important.
>
> For example, a list of accounts (collapsable perhaps?) would  
> indicate "Allow All" "Allow None" "Allow Selected" or whatever so  
> you could base judgments for contacts based off this criteria as  
> well without the need to keep it in your own memory or repeatedly  
> open the preferences window to check each account individually,  
> which would rapidly get annoying and become a poor workflow.
>
> Also, would this perference not also be eligible for the Personal  
> tab perhaps? I could see people wanting a uniform solution across  
> all accounts and that's the purpose of this tab, with accounts  
> being able to override.
>
> That's my $0.02, adjust accordingly.
>
> - brian 'bgannin'
>
> On Jun 2, 2006, at 7:34 AM, Kiel Gillard wrote:
>
>> Hi guys!
>>
>> I have given some thought to an easier to use implementation to  
>> the Block List Editor (BLE) recently and am emailing you to get  
>> some feedback from my ideas and possibly finish the UI for privacy  
>> in Adium, as it seems the interface between the protocols and the  
>> UI has been implemented by Augie.
>>
>> Currently, all the privacy settings are located in the BLE window.  
>> However, I feel that the purpose of the BLE is to add or remove  
>> denied contacts. The privacy settings for the account (for  
>> example, "allow anyone") seems to belong in the respective  
>> account's preferences, as this setting is not likely to change  
>> with frequency. Also, I find the account privacy states in the pop  
>> up button difficult to understand by just glancing at them.
>>
>> I have determined how to overcome these problems that I have  
>> identified. I felt the only real account privacy states, as far as  
>> the user is concerned, is: "Allow anyone to chat with me" and  
>> "Allow contacts to chat with me". Because a user would not change  
>> this preference frequently, I felt it was more appropriate for  
>> this to go in Adium's Preferences. I would like to suggest that a  
>> user be presented with each option in the form of radio buttons.  
>> This preference would be available in the Preferences > Accounts >  
>> {{account}} > Privacy tab.
>>
>> The advantage of this approach is that for protocols such as MSN,  
>> who do not provide users this flexibility with account privacy, we  
>> can simplify the privacy settings by not having privacy options  
>> visible. If we stay with the current implementation, a user would  
>> attempt to change the privacy state of an MSN account which is not  
>> available in the MSN protocol and confuse users.
>>
>> Remembering that the purpose of the BLE is to add or remove denied  
>> contacts, I figured the window could be split into two tables: the  
>> leftmost table could list accounts and the second list contacts  
>> blocked in the selected account. Augie's sheet can still remain.
>>
>> The foreseeable problem with this interface is that Adium will  
>> have to be careful passing around account privacy states back to  
>> the protocol API. Because the UI is simplifying the privacy for  
>> the user, Adium's going to need to check if an account has any  
>> blocked contacts and inform the API of the correct state,  
>> otherwise privacy settings will not be respected by the protocol.  
>> For example, if I chose "Allow contacts to chat with me" in the  
>> preferences, but had denied a few contacts, then I will need to  
>> provide the protocol API the account privacy state  
>> PRIVACY_ALLOW_USERS instead of PRIVACY_ALLOW_CONTACTLIST.
>>
>> Any thoughts/suggestions/criticisms? Be blunt and/or harsh ;-)
>>
>> I would be more than happy to implement the rant that I gave above  
>> if Augie or anyone else doesn't have a claim on it already. I felt  
>> that I should discuss my ideas before I sit down, plan and  
>> implement them (especially if it's already being done by someone  
>> else). Can I have a go? I guess I'm more asking Augie than anyone  
>> else. I'd love to work on this feature.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Kiel :-)
>> "Love does not consist in gazing at each other but looking  
>> together in the same direction."
>> Antoine de Saint-Exupery
>>
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