http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/2367 - 2.1.0 GUI

[Andrew Roeder]

>From: "Sean Egan" <seanegan at gmail.com>
>To: "Andrew Roeder" <correnthean at hotmail.com>
>CC: devel at pidgin.im
>Subject: Re: http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/2367 - 2.1.0 GUI
>Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2007 19:05:06 -0700

>You would, then, simply prefer a larger, but consistent, size, then?
>You suggest 64x64px.
>AIM and ICQ have icons that are smaller than that; would you suggest
>scaling them up, or leaving a jarringly inconsistent size?
It has been awhile for me to remember the specific -real- icon size of 
AIM/ICQ icons, but we should be using the -smallest- icon that any of the 
protocols use, I'm all for a consistent size.  If AIM/ICQ uses 50x50 and 
that is the smallest icon size out of the protocols, then it would make 
sense for it to be the consistent default.

>I realize I'm not, by any stretch of anyone's imagination, a usability
>expert. I also realize that Pidgin's UI both here, and in almost every
>other aspect, is far from perfect.
>I *do* think it's getting much, much better, and that introducing and
>testing different interface approaches is the only way to find out
>what works the best for the most people. While I sound antagonistic
>and defensive, I welcome all the criticism (except for the
>protocol-icon-in-buddy-list people. They got annoying).
I'll try not to resent you for the loss of my protocol-icon-in-buddy-list.  
Its not bad to change the GUI, but if the goal is to reach a design that is 
more appropriate for everyone, it would be much easier to transition older 
users over by considering the reasons why they specifically want something 
in some place or way, rather than designing to meet the needs of users who 
have problems with the -old- gui with no compromise between the two.

>It wasn't clear that you wanted more icons. What toolbar features,
>specifically, do you (and others) think are worthy of a first-class
>spot on the toolbar?
>I'd, for one, argue that "Reset Formatting" doesn't belong there at all, 
>even.

Really my feelings are that all the old toolbar options were needed as they 
gave Pidgin more of a consistent design with other "text editing/messaging" 
programs, other than those my most commonly used ones are get info and 
enable logging.  Most of the clutter was being created by the 8 different 
font icons, I think if we can narrow that down to the only toolbar button 
needing a dropdown menu we could even focus on thinking of new features that 
would be useful on the toolbar.

I'm not sure if you've touched on this, but the lack of icons/text examples 
in the font dropdown menu are currently where it falls short.  And I really 
think the "reset font" button, deserves to be placed under "fonts".

_________________________________________________________________
More photos, more messages, more storage—get 2GB with Windows Live Hotmail. 
http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migration_HM_mini_2G_0507