Hi all,
I started a thing in a branch, and i wanted to know more if the idea makes sense design-wise before putting much time in it:
The idea is to have a very simple undo for when one deletes a widget or a panel in plasma, to undelete it.
just to make clear where things are, it has to be really basicI don't think we're anywhere near doing a complex global undo framework.

what would happen would be: the user clicks remove on a plasmoids/panel, and it will immediately go away, like now (perhaps the panel should still ask for confirmation)

but in reality, that widget/panel would *not* be actually deleted, would just turn invisible for a moment (maybe even just a few minutes, and then it gets deleted for good), then a message that a widget has been deleted+undo button put somewhere.

I was thinking either putting a small dialog somewhere, or just firing a notification with an action to undelete (would be a bit weird when the notification applet or the panel containing notificatons is deleted tough, but since it would not be really deleted, at least the temporary notification would still be there)

Does this makes sense? do you think it would be powerful enough/intuitive enough?

Fortunately, the acknowledge+undo vs confirm behavior pattern is not new ground, so I don't think your going too far out on a limb here notmart.

I don't think we have an explicit guideline on whether to confirm OR acknowledge+undo yet in our HIG. However we can learn from work others have done. Android Design has a really helpful flow chart to help make such decisions here: https://developer.android.com/design/pa ... dging.html

My interpretation of that flowchart says that what you're suggesting seems reasonable.

Hope this helps!

alake wrote:Fortunately, the acknowledge+undo vs confirm behavior pattern is not new ground, so I don't think your going too far out on a limb here notmart.

I don't think we have an explicit guideline on whether to confirm OR acknowledge+undo yet in our HIG. However we can learn from work others have done. Android Design has a really helpful flow chart to help make such decisions here: https://developer.android.com/design/pa ... dging.html

My interpretation of that flowchart says that what you're suggesting seems reasonable.

Hope this helps!

yeah, that diagram seems to make sense.
so would be in this case just undo after deleting plasmoids, and confirm+undo for panels since is way more scary.

Do you think just an action in a notification would work? like
"you have deleted the widget "Analog Clock" [Undo button]"
(to be fair, I still have to check if the notification+action approach works technically tough

How about after deleting a plasmoid a smaller one appears in its place for 5 - 10s with just a large undo icon / button in it? I think people will get the message. You might not need to put any text in it either as the two actions are linked in time and space. Also saves having to move the mouse right down to the notification area if you do want to undo.

notmart wrote:
yeah, that diagram seems to make sense.
so would be in this case just undo after deleting plasmoids, and confirm+undo for panels since is way more scary.

Do you think just an action in a notification would work? like
"you have deleted the widget "Analog Clock" [Undo button]"
(to be fair, I still have to check if the notification+action approach works technically tough

I can't think of any reason not to use an action in a notification just like you describe. I think the more we can appropriately re-use interaction patterns the user is already familiar with the better - it satisfies the "I know how to do that" design principle.

alake wrote:
I can't think of any reason not to use an action in a notification just like you describe. I think the more we can appropriately re-use interaction patterns the user is already familiar with the better - it satisfies the "I know how to do that" design principle.

Do notifications still show up if you don't have a panel?

davidwright wrote:

alake wrote:
I can't think of any reason not to use an action in a notification just like you describe. I think the more we can appropriately re-use interaction patterns the user is already familiar with the better - it satisfies the "I know how to do that" design principle.

Do notifications still show up if you don't have a panel?

if you just deleted the panel with the notification applet, in the system i'm thinking would still show up because technically it wouldn'tbe really deleted yet.

if there is no notification applet really existing at all, notification would fall back to the default that are pretty ugly qwidget based thinghies, but stiff functional anyways (actions supported as well)

notmart wrote:if you just deleted the panel with the notification applet, in the system i'm thinking would still show up because technically it wouldn'tbe really deleted yet.

if there is no notification applet really existing at all, notification would fall back to the default that are pretty ugly qwidget based thinghies, but stiff functional anyways (actions supported as well)

It's not going to look great either way I think. Having a notification pop-up out of a panel you've just deleted, either by accident or design, is not going to be reassuring.

I suppose there are many ways around this. You could have a 'Recently Deleted' sub-menu in the Add Widget menu for example? If you've deleted something by accident you're probably going to go straight to the add widget menu to get it back if nothing shows up.

davidwright wrote:
It's not going to look great either way I think. Having a notification pop-up out of a panel you've just deleted, either by accident or design, is not going to be reassuring.

Are'nt notifications, when the first appear, free floating and visually disconnected from the panel anyway? Sorry if I'm remembering this wrong, I'm away from my linux box.

Yes, the notifications are now 'free floating', but I think, they would be annoying and feel 'out of place'.
I could imagine something like this:

alake wrote:Are'nt notifications, when the first appear, free floating and visually disconnected from the panel anyway? Sorry if I'm remembering this wrong, I'm away from my linux box.

Yes, sorry, in Plasma 5 I think they are separate now as default. I was looking at my KDE4 desktop. I'm still not 100% sold on the idea though sadly, there's something about it that doesn't sit right with me. But hey, this ain't no detective show, and my gut's been very wrong before!

rumangerst wrote:Yes, the notifications are now 'free floating', but I think, they would be annoying and feel 'out of place'.
I could imagine something like this:

Yes, that was along the lines of what I was going for.

Perhaps as the seconds are ticking down the transparency could be gradually increased so it will slowly fade away, rather than just disappearing abruptly after the 20s?

1. Yes, this is a great idea and I'm 100% for it. If something can be undone, it's almost always better to offer that instead of asking, for a simple reason: If we assume that an action is done on purpose rather than by accident in the majority of times, than it's better that the user only needs to perform an additional action if it was done by accident (= less actions on average).

2. Actually, I'd be for using this pattern also if a panel is removed, for consistency's sake. If it works well for Plasmoids, why wouldn't it work well for panels?

3. What about the Plasmoid/panel slowly fading out when it's removed? That would be the logical transition from "being there" to "not being there". And if the user clicks on it before it's faded out, it comes back.

This is the current status of the branch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2bArmyI9qY

+100 with the information widget it is consistent to all other parts of the desktop.