Created attachment 152646 [details]
split button

SUMMARY
Improvements for system tray.


DETAILS

The system tray currently is not very useful for things that can be turned on and off.
Sometimes the user wants to just quickly change things and turn things on and off.
First I will give an example of why current approach is insufficient.

Take for example the bluetooth. To turn it on, we need three clicks currently.
One to enter the tray, one to reach the full representation and one to activate it.
Maybe one more to close the tray.

This can definitely be improved if we let the user just click it to toggle it on or off.

Now here's some faq that I thing should be useful to readers.

1. How do I access the full view? No this is just insane, this is blah blah ...

Ans: The current design reflects that this fact was taken into consideration and
that's why the default action is to take you to the full view. But think again. This
is the reason we can't peacefully toggle things on and off. This can be solved. Not
by redirecting you to a second page and annoying you by demanding a show of your click
skill. A new representation has to be created for this. Let's call this split button
since anyway the compact view does look like buttons. The split button has two regions
divided by a divider or anything you want. The left side let you click and toggle things
on and off and the right side takes you to the full representation. This fixes both
the issues of toggling and accessing the full view.

2. What about things that can't toggled ? like power settings? Haha got you.

Ans: Anything can be toggled if you have enough imagination. I admit there are
some items that aren't suitable for toggling. The solution is rather easy.
We don't represent them using the split button. They take you directly to the
full view. Though I would like to stress that many things that look like there
is no on and off state, actually have an on and off state. Let's take some
examples:

    i. The power settings compact view can be made to show an item or text for performance mode. It
        will switch to power saving mode once we click it. The full view is
        still there to let you do more advanced things and also so that non-power
        users are not bothered by making all things only in the full view.

    ii. The vault can have two states. Locked and unlocked. This will be very convenient
        since that is what is to be done most of the time once a vault is created.
        (unrelated side note: vault is still buggy)


3. There's already the middle click to toggle things. What about that? You just don't know enough.

    Ans: I know about that terrible hack. Yes that's right. We users expect to do things with
    straightforward manners. Toggling things is something will be used frequently. assigning something
    like middle click that is only used by mostly power users is neither good nor very obvious.
    Certainly middle click does things that are somewhat advanced and should not be used carelessly
    anywhere. Make it do something useful. The middle click here does not make sense. It is here
    because the current design could not accommodate for a quick toggle. The split button solves this,
    is far more better, highly visible and to the point.

4. But there are really something that can't be toggled here. You know about lock keys status? Lol.

Ans: I would like to ask what an lock keys status doing here in the system tray. They are indicators.
They should only appear in the panel to show some status but should neither have a compact representation
nor have a full representation. If you disagree, that's fine. It won't be terrible to keep it in the
expanded tray, but it does not pose any threat to the split button idea. It won't just have a split representation
and will just stare at you.

5. You are suggesting too much changes.

Ans: I am just elaborating my concerns. The changes suggested by me here are really small. Give us the split
representation and let us use that to toggle things that are togglable. Everything else remains same.
Every thing! You can use the tray the way you used. No drastic change. You still can access the split
view the same way. My suggestion adds to the current design, and does not change it.


Now Let's talk about one more issue that can be solved as well and it's best to talk about it here.
The system tray has a specific behaviour that is just too frustrating. Let's again talk about bluetooth.
When you want to turn it on, you can get find it in the expanded tray. Once done it is now in the panel and
not anymore in the tray. There's nothing wrong in showing up in the panel. Actually that's great and let
you access the full view of it because it is now relevant. The problem is its disappearance from the expanded
view. It still should be there. We expect things to stay in the same place, not magically teleporting and
vanishing. Its staying is important because an user expects rightfully that they can turn off something in the
same place where they turned it on. It's not nice to move things around and make the user play hide and seek.

This suggestion again may attract some concerns, so let just address them.

1. This is totally wrong thing to do. Why would I want to access the same thing in the panel and also in the
    tray? This results in duplication of controls.

    Ans: You are not actually accessing the same thing! The panel one let you access the full view while the
    tray one let you access the compact view and optionally let you turn it off. It is really important to
    make controls static. People have full rights to find the things where they initially accessed them. This
    is ux wise really bad not to let them have that.

2. If we keep showing them in the expanded tray always, then there will not be enough space for everybody.

Ans: Not really. In my tray I still have enough space left and I am almost sure this is the case for others
as well. If we really make the tray full then that's not something to lose someone's mind over. This is a very
standard problem and has standard solutions. We can show the overflowing items in a different page. Like one
used in app menus. We can also make that area scrollable which is even nicer. Truth be told, the current plasma
pop ups are pathetically small. Anyway we don't still need to worry about overflowing items since it is
not going to happen.

I strongly believe that these suggestions will improve the experience and certainly will address the current
chaotic and dynamic state of the tray. This will centralize things and make users less guessing about where their controls
have gone. I hope they will get implemented and the sooner the better. Have a nice day!