Bug 416553 - Bad UX with "audio playing" indicator on "Icons-only Task Manager"
Summary: Bad UX with "audio playing" indicator on "Icons-only Task Manager"
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: plasmashell
Classification: Plasma
Component: Icons-only Task Manager (show other bugs)
Version: 5.17.90
Platform: Other Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: 1.0
Assignee: Eike Hein
URL:
Keywords: regression, usability
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2020-01-21 19:37 UTC by Yevhen Popok
Modified: 2020-02-12 19:20 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In: 5.19.0


Attachments
Demonstration of current "Audio playing" indicator on horizontal and vertical panels (12.62 KB, image/jpeg)
2020-01-21 19:37 UTC, Yevhen Popok
Details

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Description Yevhen Popok 2020-01-21 19:37:31 UTC
Created attachment 125289 [details]
Demonstration of current "Audio playing" indicator on horizontal and vertical panels

SUMMARY
With vertical panel on the left side it's very to accidentally mute application sound

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Right click on panel > "Edit Panel"
2. with "Screen Edge" move panel to the left
3. Open something with sound
4. Try to switch between application windows on the panel

OBSERVED RESULT
I accidentally click on "audio playing" indicator and mute sound of the application

EXPECTED RESULT
"Audio playing" indicator doesn't stand in my way. Maybe make it smaller or relocate it to the bottom left (some users and even distros (like KaOS) put panel to the right edge so top right side location of the indicator will stand in their way), or give user option to relocate it. Another way is an option to make that indicator not clickable.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Windows: 
macOS: 
Linux/KDE Plasma: Kubuntu 20.04
(available in About System)
KDE Plasma Version: 5.17.90
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.66.0
Qt Version: 5.12.5

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
On the attached screenshot there's 3 panel:
- vertical with "Task Manager"
- horizontal with "Task Manager"
- horizontal with "Icons-only Task Manager"

As you can see on both horizontal and vertical panels with "Icons-only Task Managers" that  "Audio playing" indicator can be easily accidentally clicked.
Comment 1 Nate Graham 2020-01-22 16:37:07 UTC
Yeah we've gotten a few complaints about this, now that we fixed the bug that was preventing the indicator from being visible when it was supposed to be visible.

We could make it even smaller, and/or eliminate the margins separating it from the corner when using an IOTM. This would ensure that it gets in the way much less often. We could also make it configurable (ugh, not a fan of that).
Comment 2 Nate Graham 2020-01-22 17:15:22 UTC
Correction: it's already configurable.

Additional options are to remove the feature that makes the button clickable when using an Icons-Only Task Manager and hide the indicator for very small IOTM icons.
Comment 3 gvgeo 2020-01-23 05:51:13 UTC
We can disable mute-on-click under a certain size, and decrease icon 10% and click-area 20%.

Indicator should stay as it is IMO. It is helpful for every size. And cannot be moved more into the corner, as it will overlap with the blue-bars/elements of the breeze theme. (Indicator barely has any margin when mute.)
Comment 4 Nate Graham 2020-02-12 19:11:23 UTC
Git commit a35d2b9adf40072e242b8820dcb07cf0a7ed037b by Nate Graham, on behalf of George Vogiatzis.
Committed on 12/02/2020 at 19:11.
Pushed by ngraham into branch 'master'.

[Applet/Task Manager] Move audio indicator to the corner

Summary:
When vertical or Icon-only task manager, shrink click area 10% and
indicator 30%.
This allows moving it closer to the corner, away from the center,
to avoid accidental audio muting.
FIXED-IN: 5.19.0

Test Plan:
With patch
{F7919362}

Reviewers: #vdg, #plasma, hein, ngraham

Reviewed By: #vdg, ngraham

Subscribers: broulik, Fuchs, ndavis, filipf, cblack, plasma-devel

Tags: #plasma

Differential Revision: https://phabricator.kde.org/D26861

M  +19   -13   applets/taskmanager/package/contents/ui/AudioStream.qml
M  +4    -3    applets/taskmanager/package/contents/ui/Task.qml

https://commits.kde.org/plasma-desktop/a35d2b9adf40072e242b8820dcb07cf0a7ed037b
Comment 5 Nate Graham 2020-02-12 19:20:09 UTC
I landed this for Plasma 5.19, but if it looks stable enough, we can consider backporting it to Plasma 5.18.1 or .2.