ubuntu-desktop Digest, Vol 10, Issue 2

[Dan Shufelt]

>Date: Sat, 01 Apr 2006 08:11:37 -0600
>From: Brad Johnson <brad at bkjohnson.com>
>Subject: Re: (Yet another) new logout dialog
>To: ubuntu-desktop at lists.ubuntu.com
>Message-ID: <1143900697.5158.43.camel at localhost>
>Content-Type: text/plain
>
>On Fri, 2006-03-31 at 21:53 +0200, Manu Cornet wrote:
> >
> > Hi !
> >
> > Here's a new version of the dialog :
> >
> > 	http://www.manucornet.net/ubuntu/dev/dialog.png
> > 	http://www.manucornet.net/ubuntu/dev/logout.png
> > 	http://www.manucornet.net/ubuntu/dev/hibernate.png
> >
> > Many people found that the dialog was too large ; therefore, I stacked
> > the help messages next to the "Cancel" button and reduced the spacing a
> > bit. This also solves a few layout problems (expanding window). Comments
> > welcome.
>
>It still seems bulky to me. The horizontal divider doesn't do much to
>break up the two distinct option categories. Please excuse my cheap Gimp
>tricks but how about something like this?
>
>	http://nerp.net/~brad/ExitDialog.png
>
>IMO the two line text window in the middle breaks up the dialog and
>takes away alot of the bulk. It also separates "session options" from
>"system options".
>
> > About the choice of designing a dialog with 6 or 7 options, I'm not the
> > one who decides about this (I'm just trying to make a good layout with
> > nice icons and text), but I do think it's a logical choice.
>
>I don't know if the number of options really matters if all of the
>options don't seem grouped together.
> >
> > * I believe the main purpose for this multi-option dialog is to let
> > users have this main "top-right applet" flow to let them perform all
> > "exit" action.
> >
> > * "Log out" as the name of the menu entry is definitely misleading, and
> > we're trying to find the best wording to replace it (suggestions
> > welcome !).
>
>"Exit" should do, IMHO.
> >
> > * The dialog indeed has many options. I agree that some of those should
> > be activated automatically (eg when a laptop lid is closed), but those
> > automatic behaviors are not yet working as they should, and meanwhile we
> > probably need the options in a dialog.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Manu

The Icons look great!  I would however like to suggest that that they be 
arranged differently.  In my opinion 'Log Out' should be placed above 
'Shutdown' as both end all current applications and have a similar severity 
on the session from a user stand point.

I also had another idea, not sure of how practical it is but here goes.  I 
think it would be cool to change the highlighted background color for the 
icons when they were selected to better reflect (or draw attention to) the 
affect each option has on the active session.  For instance, 'Log Out', 
'Restart' and 'Shutdown' could all have a reddish hue when highlighted where 
as 'Hibernate' or 'Switch User' could have a green hue.

I agree with Manu, “Exit” would be a great name change for the “Log Out” 
menu.

By the way, does anyone else think that the switch users dialog needs to be 
re-worded?  Currently when attempting to return to a previous user session 
it says;
“You are already logged in.  You can log in anyway, return to your previous 
login session, or abort this login
[Log in Anyway]  [Return to previous login]  [Abort login]”

I would like to suggest changing the wording/buttons to something along the 
lines of;
“You are currently logged in, to log out please login then choose System- 
Log Out- Log Out then click the OK button.
[Return to Previous Session] [Cancel]”

Or better yet, since the user already had to enter their user name and 
password to get to this point remove the redundancy altogether and just 
return them to their previous session.

Best regards,
Dan S.