I think it makes sense for the text to be in a block, but I think it would be a better use of space for all text to be below the avatar than having an empty column down the left side. I am thinking especially about how the client would look on mobile devices as well as PCs with screens less than 1000px wide (about the point where the Google Wave client became annoying to use), but being able to see more content without scrolling is nice on any screen.
I do not think there is reason to remove the action bar--it is not unnecessarily large and it provides much better access to blip-level controls than in the Gwave client. --Zachary “Gamer_Z.” Yaro On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 21:27, David Hearnden <[email protected]> wrote: > To add some detail to Pat's answer, the primary reasons for the changed > layout were: > * Consistent left-alignment makes the blips easier to read and use, > especially if you start making bullets. > * Content-editable regions in IE get a mutually exclusive rectangular > layout > box, so any content that is intended to be inline must be put inside the > content-editable region, exposing it to arbitrary changes (GWave's IE > permutation has code that essentially recreates all the avatars on every > keystroke to overcome this). That's the main technical issue Pat was > referring to. > > It's also a layout model that is familiar, and has emerged as the > conventional way to layout avatars and text. > > Is there a specific scenario that you're trying to optimize for? e.g., > small screens (tablets, mobile, etc) rather than desktop? Or do you think > it would be an improvement even in the desktop case? Perhaps the best way > to reclaim space would be to shrink the status/action bar, or reduce the > space surrounding it, but I personally don't want to get too involved in UI > changes - I'm just providing information on why the UI is the way it is. > > -Dave > > On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 10:56 AM, Zachary “Gamer_Z.” Yaro > <[email protected]>wrote: > > > That makes sense, but I was thinking it could work to just have the text > > below the avatar and put things like stars or whatever in the space below > > the action bar. Or even shrink the avatar to the action bar's height. > It > > just seems wasteful to have that much unused space on every line. > > > > --Zachary “Gamer_Z.” Yaro > > > > > > On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 20:43, Pat Coleman <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > > Much of the original reason was to revert the editing area back into > > being > > > rectangular (technically simpler, but also nicer to use in general); > > > One possibility would be to put it in the meta-bar but you get issues > > with > > > bad scaling horizontally if many people edit the same blip, > > > and all their names and avatars (plus date/time and buttons) are all > > along > > > the top. > > > > > > If it helps, both disqus and facebook discussions follow this pattern > > > (avatar to the side), reddit has no avatar but name on the top bar, > > > although it does have a left column (in this case, with an up/down > voting > > > widget). In WiaB, I can envisage more blip-level widgets > > > filling up this space once implemented - e.g. a star for blip > > bookmarking, > > > or maybe a drag-handle once blip reordering is simpler. > > > > > > Also, this is just my 2c from working with this UI for a while on > GWave, > > > YMMV; > > > the per-blip render rules should be simple to configure with whatever > > ends > > > up being used. > > > > > > On 1 June 2011 09:45, Zachary “Gamer_Z.” Yaro <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > > > > I have a question related to the WIAB blip UI: I was looking through > > the > > > > blip CSS to find possible improvements related to issue > > > > 281<https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/WAVE-281> and > > > > noticed for the first time that avatars essentially have their own > > > columns > > > > in blips (which also results in some weird margin stuff in the CSS). > > Is > > > > there a reason this is done? Were/are there plans to use that column > > for > > > > something, or can the styling be modified to allow blip text to just > > wrap > > > > around the avatar. I ask because I want to avoid wasting space in > the > > > > UI--one of the problems with the Google Wave client. > > > > > > > > --Zachary “Gamer_Z.” Yaro > > > > > > > > > >
