GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 677139
Back button is too close to activities hot corner
Last modified: 2013-03-27 20:43:20 UTC
gnome-documents-0.4.1-1.fc17.x86_64 I just tried gnome documents today. I was confused about how to get out of the single document view. After some poking and prodding I finally noticed the '<' button in the upper left. However, I had a hard time clicking it as hovering near it triggered the 'Activities' hot corner. I don't know how you would fix it. My first instinct (before I noticed the button) was to hit backspace to go back - but that didn't work.
Thanks for the report. - the position of the back button is really hard to change, and not a bug in my opinion; if you look at the design of other GNOME 3 applications, it's a common pattern. This would also apply to any other maximized application that uses a menu bar (i.e. pretty much any application), in which case, the "issue" is just slightly less visible due to the padding given by the titlebar. Since this is a general thing, I recommend you bring this up for discussion with Jakub, Allan or Jon in #gnome-design instead of tracking it for every application that uses this style. - the Back button could probably use a tooltip; do you think that would improve things? - Escape works as a keybinding to switch back to the overview. We could indeed add Backspace. Do you think we should use both or just replace Escape with Backspace?
Okay, I can bring up the position of the back button in #gnome-design. I know other apps I use (Firefox comes to mind) have a similar back button position but far, far more padding (Firefox has two toolbars above the back button); I've never accidentally triggered the hot corner with a back button before I filed this bug. I'm not aware of other GNOME apps that have the back button that high up and to the left so I won't file new bugs if I run into them. I'm not sure about what Esc should do; whether or not it should be kept or replaced with the Backspace keybinding. I found using the app frustrating because there is no 'X' to close it and I would expect Esc to close the app. I ended up using Alt+F4 a lot but I don't think normal users would know to do that. I can't name other apps that use 'Esc' to go back to a main overview, but Nautilus uses Backspace to go back and Evolution uses backspace to jump to the parent INBOX so it does seem Backspace makes some sense. I know these are design issues and there are no easy answers, sorry for that :(
Oh, re: the tooltip - how would the tooltip be triggered, and where would you place it? The issue I had with the back button is that I just didn't see it at all. It blends in almost completely with the titlebar since it's the same color - light grey - and the arrow on it is also a grey. If I was to redesign it for better visibility I'd make the button color a slightly darker shade of grey so it pops more, or give the arrow icon on it a more constrasting shade / color (black instead of grey maybe) Actually, it feels natural to have the back button to the bottom left since you finish reading a document at the bottom of the page, and if you are reading a book and want to go back a page you pull the bottom left corner. I think that position might get annoying though if the messaging tray is active since you wouldn't be able to hit it without dismissing the tray.
(In reply to comment #2) > Okay, I can bring up the position of the back button in #gnome-design. I know > other apps I use (Firefox comes to mind) have a similar back button position > but far, far more padding (Firefox has two toolbars above the back button); > I've never accidentally triggered the hot corner with a back button before I > filed this bug. I'm not aware of other GNOME apps that have the back button > that high up and to the left so I won't file new bugs if I run into them. At least Contacts, Boxes and Web come to my mind. > I'm not sure about what Esc should do; whether or not it should be kept or > replaced with the Backspace keybinding. I found using the app frustrating > because there is no 'X' to close it and I would expect Esc to close the app. I > ended up using Alt+F4 a lot but I don't think normal users would know to do > that. I can't name other apps that use 'Esc' to go back to a main overview, but > Nautilus uses Backspace to go back and Evolution uses backspace to jump to the > parent INBOX so it does seem Backspace makes some sense. I can't think of any application that uses Esc to close itself though; when the application is maximized, you can use the app menu to quit it - it will still have an X button in case it's not maximized. I think I will change Escape to Backspace; by the way, the stock "Back" button (as found e.g. on thinkpad keyboards) works too. (In reply to comment #3) > Oh, re: the tooltip - how would the tooltip be triggered, and where would you > place it? The issue I had with the back button is that I just didn't see it at > all. It blends in almost completely with the titlebar since it's the same color > - light grey - and the arrow on it is also a grey. If I was to redesign it for > better visibility I'd make the button color a slightly darker shade of grey so > it pops more, or give the arrow icon on it a more constrasting shade / color > (black instead of grey maybe) The tooltip would be triggered on hover as all the others. I think what you're seeing wrt. the arrow color is a GTK theming state propagation bug (e.g. bug 672046) - it's indeed black here. > Actually, it feels natural to have the back button to the bottom left since you > finish reading a document at the bottom of the page, and if you are reading a > book and want to go back a page you pull the bottom left corner. I think that > position might get annoying though if the messaging tray is active since you > wouldn't be able to hit it without dismissing the tray. Again, this is very much related to the general design of toolbars in GNOME 3 style applications.
I now implemented the tooltip and keybinding changes in git master (I also added Alt+Left as a keybinding for "back", like other applications do). I am unsure what to do about the proximity of the Back button to the activities corner - I'd be tempted to wontfix since it's completely intentional, but if this proves to be a more general issue, maybe it's worth thinking of a way to address it at a higher level. Maybe after all it's just a matter of choosing the right amount of padding. CC-ing other designers to get a second opinion.
A related issue is that the clickable area of the Back button should extend to the edge of the screen, that would make it a bit easier to target it.
I think the main issue here is that there isn't enough padding around the buttons in the toolbar. Compare what we have now compared with the mockups: https://github.com/gnome-design-team/gnome-mockups/raw/master/documents/documents-device-listing.png
The general issue involving hot corner is covered by bug 665436 and bug 663661.
If we ever get the forceful push for the message tray right, I'd be vouching to try it for the activities corner as well. Over time I've experienced high number of false triggers with a plain hot corner (not just with gnome-shell, but on other systems as well).
(In reply to comment #9) > If we ever get the forceful push for the message tray right, I'd be vouching to > try it for the activities corner as well. Speaking for myself, when I'm switching between windows, I used to only “brush” hot corner, as quick as possible, with intention of immediate moving the cursor to the center of the screen where window thumbnails can be selected.
*** Bug 679349 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I believe this bug can be closed now since: - we add more padding around the button, matching the mockups above - the Activities hot corner now uses a pressure barrier to avoid being unintentionally triggered just by hovering (bug 663661) Please reopen if I missed something.