UI suggestions

[Aleve Sicofante]

Hi,

I'm new to this Pidgin list. I've been using Pidgin in Windows for a few
weeks and I'd like to point out a few UI issues I've found:

1- Friends logging in or out are announced by a sound. In order to know
who's that friend, the user is forced to open Pidgin.
SUGGESTION:
Show a tooltip in the system tray showing the friend's name and a little
text ("Fred has just logged in" or "Martha has just logged out").

2- Icons used to show a friend is logging in and out are counter intuitive.
A small arrow pointing outside the window means the friend is getting in. A
small arrow pointing inside the window means the friend is getting out. It
should be exactly the opposite. The door behind the arrows is too small to
help with the meaning.
SUGGESTION:
Remove the door in the icons.
Use a big red arrow pointing outside the window when a friend logs out.
Use big green arrow pointing inside the window when a friend logs in.

3- Friends' pictures are shown to the right of the window, while names are
on the left. Unless the window is stretched to a very narrow width, it's
hard to see who the picture belongs too.
SUGGESTION:
Put friends' pictures right in between the friend's status icon and the
friend's name.

3- Friends' pictures are far too small.
SUGGESTION:
Allow picture size to be customizable in Preferences.

4- Turning pictures into B&W when friend is disconnected is a nice way to
tell so, but it should be optional. Some pictures look just too bad in B&W.
SUGGESTION:
Allow "B&W when friend is away" to be an option in Preferences.

5- "Friend is typing" animated icon: It took me a few days to notice it was
there. It's annoying to look up-right to see if your friend is typing. While
in a conversation, we tend to look at the last line our friend has written
or to our own writing area.
SUGGESTION:
Put the "friend is typing" animated icon right between the writing area and
the last line of the current conversation.

6- I think "Expand" is not quite that useful. Most friends use just one IM
protocol, making expanding a bit absurd.
SUGGESTIONS:
Put protocol icons to the right of the friend's name.
Use protocol icons to show friend's status. For instance, by putting that
icon in B&W (Instead of the friend's picture).
Allow grouping by protocol (which is nice) to be an option in preferences.

Regards,

Aleve Sicofante
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://pidgin.im/pipermail/devel/attachments/20070617/5ed80374/attachment.html>