GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 733910
Removing the separator from the HeaderBar
Last modified: 2014-08-28 10:40:57 UTC
I'd like to discuss the purpose of the separator you can find at the left of the "Close Window" button (the X icon). The header bar buttons are rendered as "normal" buttons with borders while the X is just a symbol with no borders until the user hover the mouse on it. It does make sense given the very specific role of the X symbol/button: it's a fundamental component of every window, while the buttons they change for every application. I find the separator to be redundant, it looks like it's there just to please the user eyes, but at same time it dirties the header bar (which by the way It's amazingly designed, I love it) I'm attaching some mock-ups without the separator to have a quick impression on the result.
Created attachment 281929 [details] Preferences Dialog
Created attachment 281930 [details] Weather
Created attachment 281931 [details] Web
Created attachment 281932 [details] File
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 729636 ***
My request was really intended to completely drop the separator, the bug 729636 has a different purpose of deciding wether to show it or not depending on different scenarios. I'm stating here that the separator is not needed by a design point of view, it's redundant, it doesn't solve a real problem: the separation between the "closing" function and the header bar buttons is made clear by the different behaviour/rendering of the X button. In the mochups I provided you can have a feeling of it.
Not a duplicate to me as well, I was thinking about hiding it in adwaita anyway, let's keep the two bugs separate, I'll do some tests in the meantime.
I agree with the suggested notion that the non-raised style of the window close button alone provides enough visual separation for the explicit separator line to be redundant.
I dont. And please accept that as the sole person wrangling over 3000 open gtk bugs, I'll mark bugs as duplicates as I see fit. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 729636 ***
I had a look at the implementation (I'm testing the continuous releases now). A more appropriate space between the headerbar icons and the "close window" button should be 6 pixels (now it's 12) so that there is continuity with the other buttons when the "close window" button is hovered. I'm attaching a mockup to highlight the issue.
Created attachment 284674 [details] Headerbar close window button spacing