Comment 140 for bug 527458

On 12 May 2010 23:28, Marck Robinson <email address hidden> wrote:
> What is wrong with a win/win solution?
>

See attached screenshot of a loss/loss situation

1) What's the time & date? (I'm hovering over the date/time applet)
2) Is my sound muted, low or high?
3) Do I have any pending messages in the messaging menu?
4) Which user is logged in?

When asked to "click on the envelope icon" users do search with their
mousepointer while they do it (e.g. first time users) they will hover
over the icons while searching for the right icon the tooltips will
hide the items they are searching for leading to frustration.

In this context all the indicators have about the same significance
and all of them are the same size. Tooltips on the other hand are much
larger in size and cover more than one indicator. When your mouse
pointer is in the indicator area it is area of high interest and users
should be able to see all indicators and nothing should hide any of
them.

Also thing about visually-impaired and/or people with reduced motor
skills / poor hand-eye coordination. The time it takes to get to the
icon will be less than tooltip popup delay which will increase the
effort to get to the indicator. And even with legacy notification
icons you still click more on it (left, right, double) then hovering
over them.