GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 676082
[design] [empathy-chat] Consider removing the menubar
Last modified: 2018-05-22 15:31:24 UTC
Now that we are about to remove the roster's menubar we should consider doing the same in empathy-chat. Atm we have: Conversation -------------------- - Clear (Ctrl+L): can probably be dropped if we keep the accelerator (not a critical feature) - Insert Smileys: I literally never used it; I just type the smiley. But maybe that could be useful for tablets users? Maybe in a toolbar? - Invite Participant... : Should be in the app menu and/or toolbar? - Close (Ctrl+W): it's actually 'close the current tab', not close the window. Moving to the app menu may be a bit confusing as we kinda makes it more 'global'. Contact ------------ - Audio Call - Video Call - Send File - Invite to chatroom - Share my Desktop: - Previous Conversation - Information We should keep those. Maybe in a toolbar? Edit ------ - Cut (Ctrl+X) - Copy (Ctrl+C) - Paste (Ctrl+V) - Find (Ctrl+F) Can probably go away as long as we keep the accelerator. Tabs ------- Move and detach tabs options. I literally never used this menu, I just use the accelerator. Can go away. Help ------ - Contents - About Should go to the app menu
If we start using the app menu for empathy-chat, that means we'll have the same visual widget in the top Shell bar ("Empathy" + its icon) which will popup a different menu depending if the roster or the chat window is focused. Maybe that could be a bit confusing, don't know.
Created attachment 214112 [details] conversation window mockup (In reply to comment #0) > - Insert Smileys: I literally never used it; I just type the smiley. But maybe > that could be useful for tablets users? Maybe in a toolbar? This is in the context menu already. It could be added as a button, but I'd prefer to wait to see how the rest of the design pans out first. > - Invite Participant... : Should be in the app menu and/or toolbar? Could be a toolbar button (labelled '+'). Jon's concerned that conversations with multiple people don't fit without having a conversation list. One option here might be to make it less prominent until this happens, perhaps by putting it in a context menu. > - Close (Ctrl+W): it's actually 'close the current tab', not close the window. > Moving to the app menu may be a bit confusing as we kinda makes it more > 'global'. Put close buttons on the tabs then? > - Audio Call > - Video Call Can have a single call button in a toolbar which launches a video/audio call dialog. > - Send File Single button to the left of the text entry field. Jon's suggested that this is done as 'attach' rather than send, since that means you can type a message to go along with the file. > - Invite to chatroom What does this do exactly? > - Share my Desktop: Seems like something that belongs to video chat. > - Previous Conversation Accessible from the contact list context menu. > - Information Accessible from the contact list context menu.
(In reply to comment #2) > Created an attachment (id=214112) [details] > conversation window mockup I'm one of those 'Send' button haters... > (In reply to comment #0) > > - Insert Smileys: I literally never used it; I just type the smiley. But maybe > > that could be useful for tablets users? Maybe in a toolbar? > > This is in the context menu already. It could be added as a button, but I'd > prefer to wait to see how the rest of the design pans out first. agreed. > > - Invite Participant... : Should be in the app menu and/or toolbar? > > Could be a toolbar button (labelled '+'). Jon's concerned that conversations > with multiple people don't fit without having a conversation list. One option > here might be to make it less prominent until this happens, perhaps by putting > it in a context menu. Ok, this feature needs lot of polishing and testing anyway. > > - Close (Ctrl+W): it's actually 'close the current tab', not close the window. > > Moving to the app menu may be a bit confusing as we kinda makes it more > > 'global'. > > Put close buttons on the tabs then? There is already one, so yeah we can drop the menu item. > > - Audio Call > > - Video Call > > Can have a single call button in a toolbar which launches a video/audio call > dialog. I'm not 100% convinced that adding an extra step before actually calling is a step to the rigth direction but maybe I'm wrong. For extra fun, this button could also be used to call the contact's actual phone (if we have its number in the address book) using SIP. > > - Send File > > Single button to the left of the text entry field. Jon's suggested that this is > done as 'attach' rather than send, since that means you can type a message to > go along with the file. I'm pretty sure loads of people will be confused if they see 'attach' rather than 'send file'. Attach would make more sense to embed an image if we'd support rich text chat. > > - Invite to chatroom > > What does this do exactly? If you are in, say room@jabber.org you can use this menu to invite the contact to join this room. > > - Share my Desktop: > > Seems like something that belongs to video chat. Hum, maybe. > > - Previous Conversation > > Accessible from the contact list context menu. Often one wants to check a previous chat he had with the contact he is chatting with. We should have a way to access it without going back to the contact list. Especially as the contact list may not be running at all (incoming chat). > > - Information > > Accessible from the contact list context menu. This open the contact in Contacts. I think it should be doable from the chat window directly as we may want to change/edit contacts' detail ("hey this is my home address") or start writing an email to him. Actually this could be the way to start this phone call I mentioned above.
(In reply to comment #3) > (In reply to comment #2) > > > - Share my Desktop: > > > > Seems like something that belongs to video chat. > > Hum, maybe. Fwiw i use this regularily to help my parents with their computer. Which essentially always is in the context of a normal chat and not a call. > > > - Previous Conversation > > > > Accessible from the contact list context menu. That only works if you chat with people in your contact lists though. Not for example with people on IRC. > Often one wants to check a previous chat he had with the contact he is chatting > with. We should have a way to access it without going back to the contact list. > Especially as the contact list may not be running at all (incoming chat). > > > > - Information > > > > Accessible from the contact list context menu. See previous remark. Someone pings me on IRC, i start a private chat with them and want their information. You can't solve this by bouncing through the contact list. > This open the contact in Contacts. I think it should be doable from the chat > window directly as we may want to change/edit contacts' detail ("hey this is my > home address") or start writing an email to him. Actually this could be the way > to start this phone call I mentioned above. In my opinion forcing a bounce from the context in which you're interacting with the contact (e.g. the chat window or the video call window) to the contact list will always be cumbersome and not intuitive. If i want some information or start an action with a Contact i expect it to be right there, not in some window far far away and certainly not in a far far away window in a right-click context menu (My parents won't ever find that for example)
*** Bug 684610 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
To stay coherent (see bug #684610) the chat global menu should be the same one as the contact list one I think. So what we really need to do is to check each item which is currently in the chat menu and decide if we drop it or re-implement it in some way.
(In reply to comment #6) > To stay coherent (see bug #684610) the chat global menu should be the same one > as the contact list one I think. So what we really need to do is to check each > item which is currently in the chat menu and decide if we drop it or > re-implement it in some way. Also that would be a step forward to the 'conversation view' direction as this one will obviously share the same app menu. Alan: do you agree?
So, assuming we share the global menu with the roster, I think we need a design to integrate those in the chat window: - Insert Smileys: assuming we care about touch users - Invite Participant: needed to invite people to group chat or 'upgrade' a 1-1 chat to a multi contacts chat. - audio call - video call: we really need to be able to quickly start a call - send file: - invite to chatroom: May we should claim it should always be done the other around: inviting from the room/chat - Share my desktop: on a second thoughts I don't agree this should be tied with the call UI. One may use it while doing text chat support. - Previous Conversation: Maybe less useful once we'll have infinite scrollback (bug #639877) - Information: I think it can be useful to easily open the contact we are chatting with in gnome-contacts
(In reply to comment #8) > So, assuming we share the global menu with the roster, I think we need a > design to integrate those in the chat window: > > - Insert Smileys: assuming we care about touch users Most people I know just type e.g ":" followed by ")" with the on screen keyboard on their smartphones/tablets to insert a smiley. Some are more fancy and even have a special « smiley » keyboard layout. Isn't that enough for touch users, removing the need for a dedicated menu/button in the UI?
Good point. It may indeed make more sense to have this on the virtual keyboard so it can be used in Shell's chat bubble or in mails as well.
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