Re: [dev] [wmii] widgets with graphics?

From: Kurt H Maier <khm-suckless_AT_intma.in>
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:34:12 -0500

On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 04:27:35PM +0100, Florian Limberger wrote:
> then how do you distinguish the percentage of battery load and the
> percentage of wifi signal strength? Sometimes, I don't care if wifi
> signal quality is exactly 87% or 78%, It would suffice if I knew if it
> is over 25%, 50% or 75% ...

A one-letter prefix doesn't help you? b50% s70%? I don't even do that
much. I used to just have it read, e.g., 50% 70% and I used my amazing
pattern-recognition skills to discern that the battery life was
mysteriously always first in that list! Now I let my battery LED turn
orange to remind me to plug in (I can run a script in a terminal if I
care about exact percentage) and I just report my current essid.

> Plus, I don't have to think about if I'm looking at my battery or my
> wifi status, thats something where pictures are a little bit better.
> If I denote the textual percentage with letters, it would cost me some
> pixels too, so I think thats a rather weak argument.
> But if you are paving the whole UI with icons, it gets confusing, but
> same applies to textual information, if you write a huge string with
> shitloads of information into your status bar, it would be confusing
> too.

If you look at the same series of information every day for a month and
are still confused by it, you may want to invest in some Apple products,
or at least install Arch Linux.

> So I think, minimalism is the most important design goal, wether using
> icons or text to display information.

> By the way, I think the "general consensus" applies only to this
> mailing
> list, the rest of the world (sane or not) believes in some usability
> bonus.

I don't find cartoons more usable than information. I don't, along the
same lines, give a shit what the rest of the world thinks. The rest of
the world has chosen an interface. They're free to wallow in it while I
use something more effective.
Received on Fri Dec 23 2011 - 02:34:12 CET