Redesign chat window

[qsorix@…]

Hi,

First of all thank you for gajim. At last a good client using GTK :).

I've got some proposals for improving chat window's interface.

1. It uses a button with a drop down menu to show available actions while there is plenty of space to just show simple buttons. (screen attached)

2. I think that the pop-up menu available at the banner should be also available after clicking on the chat content. When the banner is not visible, and I hide those buttons on the bottom, there is no place to click to get the menu, you have to open the roster.

3. Actions available for a selected phrase should be displayed even if there is nothing selected and use whole word under the cursor then. It is much faster to just click on a word rather then selecting it first. And after all, you usually look up just one word in a dictionary.

4. If the banner is hidden and you don't use tabs (or tabs are hidden too) you cannot see the contact is composing a message.

5. The Send button is a bit redundant if you use Enter to send messages. Maybe it should only be visible when someone uses Ctrl+Enter?

Regards, Thomas 'QsoRiX' Rydzynski

[asterix]

1. too many buttons in this area would bloat the UI. you won't find the one you want when you want it. Moreover those are actions you don't use often, so it's not a pb they are not accesible directly

2. actios in this menu are not related to textview, so I don't think it's good to have them in textview context menu. You have the same when you right click the tab

3. yes, could be usefull, but finding the word under it is not so easy, does ,!_- etc chars end a word ?

4. don't hide banner! it's here for that!

5. some ppl are used to click on a send button. I agree that it's not very usefull, but it doesn't really hurt to have it

[qsorix@…]

1. Why is there a button to turn on encryption then? At this moment there are three options in the menu (OpenPGP is redundant and compact view should be done some other way as you loose way to disable it when the button is gone). Three buttons would take even less space then this drop-down list does.

2. They are not related, I agree. But the textview is the only place to click when you hide others. I think it will not be a great logical problem when you append them to the bottom of the context menu.

3. You display the phrase anyway, so user can easily see if you matched what he wanted and select the text himself if not.

4. I've got a small display on my laptop. I hate UI that occupy more space that it should. When I've got window's title there is no need to use the banner. It looks cool but that's all.

5. It bloats the UI. ;)

I am not saying I would like these changes to be the-only-good-way, I would appreciate them as options in ACE. Gnome's HIG is a good reading but do not make the same mistake Gnome does. Do not assume users are idiots or they will be ;)

Or maybe you could give users a dialog to customize the toolbars and similar spaces? You could build chat window (and roster too) on the base of components that user can rearrange/hide/change etc.

[asterix]

1. openPGP is shown cause it shows the current state of it. Compact view is done with Alt+C and in context menu in tab so it's ok. and in GC there are 6 menuitmes in this menu. So 7 buttons is too much for sure !

2. same argument, it's not related ... so I see no reason to add it there. Moreover don't you use tabs ? it's there

3. Indeed

4. so don't expect to have all info if you hide everything :) I see no other place to put it

5. Sending messages is the most important thing you do in an IM app, So user should never wonder how to send a message ...

customize toolbar and everything, why not but this make code much more complexe, and most users will never touch that. So we prefer focus on more important features. But patches are welcome :)

[qsorix@…]

2. Relationship is not always the most important thing. Usability pretty often is. The textview is just the only place to click and I assure you that jabber-related menu would be much more appropriate than the one provided by gtk. You cannot paste/cut the text. You never set input method... You just copy, clear, and select. Below these three you can add at least History - very related to the text.

4. I don't hide everything to loose info but to get more space. However, you could get space just by not wasting it. I've run gimp on that dialog to show you my idea ;) (attached)

5. Agreed. But please do not focus too much on newbie users because you will lost rest of them. This button should be removable.

[qsorix@…]

it may be compact or full view... or both ;-)

[asterix]

2. history could go in the menu right.

4. pbs with your screenshot: Am I supposed to know what the button on the right of entry is (actions) without text ? What will it become if you type a more than 1 line text in the entry?

5. I don't think we focus too much on newbies. We have a lot of advanced features (privacy lists, server admin stuff like MOTD, ad hoc commands, ...). We just don't forget them and try to make a client for both newbies and advanced users

[qsorix@…]

4. It can be compact view then. Less information given and less space taken. Later I've thought the lock can be displayed IN the text entry - the way Firefox shows it. And I would leave resizing to the GTK.

5. Of course, and I appreciate that. I just think there is no common way to build one GUI for both new and power users. They need different features as their usage habits are different.

New users (even power users for the first time) should see full gui to know their possibilities. It should be reasonable default, may even be a little bit bloated. Newbie users rarely use "Preferences" dialog, so they should be able to do as much as possible with what they see.

Newbie users can then stick to that, while power users usually learn keyboard shortcuts and hide the buttons then. You made it possible to launch remote commands so one can control Gajim from window manager bindings... No need to touch mouse - therefore no need for buttons.

If one of these ways (in general, my examples may be totally wrong but I know ppl that matches them) is not accessible you will eventually loose one group or they will split the code and develop numerous branches. I guess you know what happened to Psi... there are many people developing patches but they cannot get them into the trunk. There are Psi-gentoo, Psi-pedrito, Psi-etc... And I personally don't know anyone using vanilla Psi.

Well... after all I think I don't really have to write all that, as you know it already :)

So have fun developing Gajim and just remember that if something can be switched by ACE there is not need to think about it too long - the right group of ppl will find it.

Thanks

[asterix]

so to sum up what could be done:

• add history in textview popup menu
• in compact view, add GPG button on the left, and actions button without text on the right

what do other think about that?

[Jim++]

• Don't see any special reason, textview popup menu is not an action menu, it's about the textview itself.
• Contact view IS a chat window WITHOUT buttons, so I don't get the point.

[anonymous]

The textview itself is about the conversation which is the very same thing whole window is about.

Do not treat that textview as an area displaying text. It is much more. It is conversation. And it is read-only so no pasting or cutting is needed.

Check the Gimp. How stupid would it be in usage when context menu of image area would consist of copy/paste/cut only. It is the largest area of the window (and sometimes the only area of the window) so it provides the same menu as the whole image window does.

[junglecow]

Replying to asterix:

- add history in textview popup menu - in compact view, add GPG button on the left, and actions button without text on the right

what do other think about that?

I like the compact screenshot, it removes a lot of wasted space. Although the "Send" button should be next to the input entry instead of "Actions". And maybe some kind of separation between "Send" and "Actions" too.

Not sure what to do about the popup menu. There sure are a lot of insensitive items there. I don't like it.

[Jim++]

Ah, text entry is on the same line, I didn't see that. Pretty good then.

[steve-e]

With OTR there will be two ways to encrypt chats in gajim. OTR does not need to be enabled, it will auto-enable itself, but GPG has to be. For me it would be fine to make the encryption symbol insensitive and move into the edit-box. It will appear when OTR and/or GPG is enabled. When no

[steve-e]

Send and Actions button should be removed. Gajim is "context based": Most of the important actions are done in a context menu (just think of roster or occupents actions in gc). Imho right-click on banner is intiutive enough.

Send button is not needed, because it is slow to use and only very view people don't send via keyboard it. When it won't be there anymore, they will figure out very quickly to use ENTER button.

[steve-e]

See #3196

[steve-e]

I have observed three newcomers using Gajim. Looks like its not that intuitive as I thought to perform right click on the banner.

Nevertheless I still think we should receive the send button.

[nicfit]

Send button next to the text entry and with the option to hide sounds real nice.

[asterix]

(In [9827]) when we right click on a word in conversation textview, even if it's not selected, show actions menuitem to look in dictionary and so on. see #2874

[asterix]

I think that if we hide buttons, it means we are advanced enough user to not need send button, right? so why would we move it?

Every thing in this ticket seems to be done since actions button is now done with icons.