[sugar] Mini-Conference Proposal: Toolbars & Tabs (or lack thereof)

[Mikus Grinbergs]

Eben wrote
> Toolbar buttons use icons instead of text as an identifier.

When I looked at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Designs/Toolbars,
there were no mock-ups there yet.  So I'm not sure if you are 
referring to the (e.g., menu-bar) button which goes from the 
activity to a toolbar, or to a button which itself sits on a toolbar.

Speaking for myself, "language" is more natural to me than "visual 
imagination".  [I'm reminded of the story about older-generation 
people, who saw '?' signs in railway terminals, but had no idea what 
they meant.]  An icon without text will be meaningful __once the 
user learns what that icon signifies__.  A button supplying text 
will be meaningful to anyone who knows the language.

You should not do away with text for those buttons which themselves 
sit on a toolbar.  [Text names are NOT superfluous - if icons are to 
be primary in the UI, please supply "helper" text on roll-over.]


mikus


p.s.
> Rather than residing in a secondary region solely for tabs, toolbar
> buttons are first class citizens in toolbars; when clicked, they
> reveal a second tier toolbar beneath the first, visually attached to
> the toolbar button.

I already commented in the wiki under Designs/Activity_Management 
that a similar 'tiering' scheme would be useful for organizing 
Activity icons (interchange your term "toolbar button" with my term 
"tab").  There are getting to be so many "draw pictures" Activities 
that in my opinion they ought to be organized into a secondary tier.