Sprints/UX2011/KMessageWidget

Three kinds of uses:

1. Positive or negative feedback

2. Opportunistic interaction (example: Firefox "remember password" bar)

3. Find/replace panels

Feedback

Negative feedback

The MessageWidget should be used as a second indicator of failure: the first indicator is that the action the user expected to happen did not happen.

Example: User just filled a form, clicks "Submit".

• Expected feedback: form closes
• First indicator of failure: form stays there
• Second indicator of failure: a MessageWidget appears on top of the form

Placement of the MessageWidget

MessageWidget should be placed close to its context. In the case of a form, it should appear on top of the form entries.

MessageWidget should get inserted in the existing layout. Space should not be reserved for it, otherwise it becomes "dead space", ignored by the user. MessageWidget should not appear as an overlay to prevent blocking access to elements the user needs to interact with to fix the failure.

Positive feedback

Should be used sparingly: only to confirm success of high-risk transactions or completion of background tasks.

Opportunistic interaction

Example use cases:

• A browser can propose remembering a recently entered password
• A music collection can propose ripping a CD which just got inserted
• A chat application may notify the user a "special friend" just connected

Layouts

The MessageWidget should provide two possible shape: line and rectangle.

Line

+----------------------------------+
| Password is wrong                |
+----------------------------------+

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Remember password for site example.com? (Remember) (Do not remember) (X) |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The widget height should always be the height of one line of text (plus margins). If text is too long, it should be cropped like this:

+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Remember password for... _more_ (Remember) (Do not remember) (X) |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+

Clicking on _more_ expands the widget to multiple lines:

+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Remember password for site      (Remember) (Do not remember) (X) |
| example.com?                                                     |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+

Note: One should try to ensure the beginning of the message text makes it possible for the regular user to understand the message without clicking on the _more_ link. So avoid generic introductions like "Do you want FooApp to...".

Rectangle

Example usage: showing feedback at the bottom of a sidebar.

+--------------------+
| Do you want to (X) |
| rip this CD?       |
|                    |
|           (Rip CD) |
+--------------------+

Queuing: MessageWidgets should not stack on each others. Assuming MessageWidget A is visible, if MessageWidget B is created, it should wait until A has been visible for at least 3 seconds and replace it.

Widget API

• Properties
  • tone (negative, neutral, positive)
  • text
  • shape (line, rectangle)
  • showCloseButton

• Methods
  • addAction(QAction*)
  • setMainWidget() low-level method to replace the existing text + buttons layout with a custom widget. Setting text and adding actions with addAction() should be preferred whenever possible.

To be refined

• MessageBox-like Icon on the left?

• Integration with KNotification?

• Definition of a container to implement queuing rules?

• Using a different widget for the "find/replace" use-case?