[Adium-devl] User Interface Idea's Chat Window and other thoughs

Wed Feb 21 09:06:51 UTC 2007

On Feb 21, 2007, at 2:57 AM, Bart van de Biezen wrote:

>>> I have some remarks about the user interface from the chat window:
>>> - Emoticon icon is on the top: mouse movements are long. Because
>>> people start to point to the input field before they type (mental-
>>> image). Therefor I would suggest to move the emoticon icon to
>>> bottom of the window.
>>>  - People use a few icons most of the time. Adium could count and
>>> store which emoticons are used most often. These few "favorite
>>> emoticons" could be displayed in a more convenient way to the user.
>>
>> Personally, I don't ever want to see emoticons as part of my message
>> view. I only use a few, and have them memorised. The advantage of
>> having them in the menu bar is that I don't have to see them, as I
>> can simply remove that button from the bar, or hide it.
>
> When I observe people around me I see that they often use smilies
> such as "hug" or "kis" from the menu's. These smilies are used often,
> not so often as :-) and ;-) but still very often.

This is an incidental usage pattern, not an indicative one. Given a  
sufficiently large enough demographic I have a feeling the 'most  
used' emoticons would bear out a much flatter distribution. Put more  
simply, everyone has a different set of 'most used' so pre-supposing  
would be bad.

>
>>> - Search could be available right in the chat window to that
>>> particular person.
>>
>> Are we searching chat transcripts? If so, it would be interesting as
>> a toolbar item. If not, I don't see the point.
>
> Sorry, I was not clear, this was my point indeed.

Is this to launch the transcript viewer or display transcripts within  
the same window as the conversation or search the text of the  
conversation window itself?

>
>>> - Chat input field doesn't really look like an input field. I think
>>> this should be more emphasized.
>>
>> I can see what you mean, and would only perhaps suggest some
>> shadowing, á la the text input fields in mail (well, it's where I see
>> them at the moment. Seeing as most of the time it is  a single line
>> input field, and it seems that they generally have a shadow, whereas
>> multi-line text areas do not.
>
> I would not compare it with mail, but the input fields of mail can
> also contain multiple lines. I would still emphasize on making it
> more an input field to make it more "inviting".
>
>>> I also had some other thoughts. Just generally:
>>> - Adding a person from address book should work without selecting
>>> an im service. Adium should enable all the possible ways of
>>> contacting that person.
>> Hmmm... I just don't think this is a) workable b) a good idea.
>> Selecting the IM service is standard, like selecting which phone
>> number (home, work or mobile) is in the address book.
>
> When your isync syncs your phone it doesn't ask if you want to add
> work or home phone numbers, it automatically input all phone numbers
> that are possible for the phone to handle. Why is selecting the IM
> service in Adium standard, it is a step that can be eliminated. The
> user wants to contact a person from his address book not an "IM
> servce + name". In address book the IM services are already given.
> Maybe Adium could also have the ability to sync between address book
> or a particular group in address book.
>
>>> - When it is someone's birthday the status icon could be a birthday-
>>> cake or something?
>>
>> Cute, but not really worth spending that much time on.
>
> I think it is one thing it gives Adium a small extra to show how well
> it is integrated with the system and is very cute indeed :)

Every additional feature costs in binary size, development resources,  
support, and many other components. For a feature to be added, it's  
utility must justify the aforementioned costs. In cases where this  
occurs the first and most efficient fallback is to make a plugin, and  
this would certainly fit there IMO.

>
>>
>>> - Making the contact list the "tabs". I have to think more about
>>> this :)
>>
>> That idea scares me. I like the idea of having the CL and the Message
>> window separate. The CL hides on one side of my screen, like the
>> dock, and the message window visible as a standard window. It just
>> works nicely and is intuitive. I just feel like this wouldn't be...
>> OS X-esque. Of course, that's just me. I have far too many contacts
>> to fit into tabs, and I like my message view quite small, so it
>> really wouldn't work for me. I don't know about the rest of the
>> userbase.
>
> I have to think more about it. Some ideas for example that could
> solve your problems are: dragging the chat windows from the contact
> list which makes it default not stick on the contact list; and
> positioning the persons who have a message on the top of the contact
> list with a special separator between the other contacts. I don't say
> these are perfect solutions but I have to think of it because I think
> it is strange to have two lists (your contact list and the "tab  
> list").

The tab list is typically only a minor subset of contact list, thus  
attempting to create a 1:1 relationship there won't work well.  
Personally I've got dozens of people on my contact list that I  
wouldn't want in tabs in front of me at all times, only when I might  
speak with them and open a conversation explicitly.

- brian 'bgannin' ganninger

> _______________________________________________
> Adium-devl mailing list
> Adium-devl at adiumx.com
> http://adiumx.com/mailman/listinfo/adium-devl_adiumx.com
>