Windicators in action (albeit mocked-up action)

By , Published June 17, 2010

Windicators will form part of Ubuntu 10.10′s new feature set but remained, until now, somewhat of an enigma for no-one really knew what they were supposed to be for – other than indicate!

Below are some proof-of-concept implementations by Canonical’s Matthew Paul Thomas and Ted Gould who are part of the team turning Windicators into reality. These designs should help to better illustrate understanding of the indicators, their potential usage and function.

Also related to Windicators are the use of new ‘Hint Bars’ – Chromium-esque transitory status bars that only appear when they have something useful to provide ‘status’ on.

What’s a windicator?
“Window indicators, or windicators, are menus that appear at the trailing end of a window's title bar, or in the panel when the window is maximized. Application developers can use windicators for reflecting status, and allowing change of status, for the item or items presented in the window.”

Examples: F-Spot
f-spot.jpg
When windicators are available, there should be a windicator for tagging the selected photos. The menu should consist of a boolean item for each tag. If all selected photos have a tag, the tag item should have a checked checkmark (œ“); if only some of them do, the tag item should have an indeterminate checkmark (€“).

When windicators are not available, this menu should not be shown anywhere else. (Ideally it would be prepended to the €œTags€ menu, but other items in that same menu assume you are using the €œTags€ sidebar rather than tagging with a menu.)

Go further
You can read the entire specification on Windicators and their intended role, complete with further examples @ wiki.ubuntu.com/Ayatana/Windicators

Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

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  • https://launchpad.net/~scio Scio

    I keep forgetting Windicators aren’t weathervanes.
    Looking forward to seeing them in as many applications as feasible non-the-less; so much potential.

  • http://indoorgames.co.cc Alexei Boronine

    Ubuntu loves offering great solutions for non-existent problems..

    • Anonymous

      you know how proficient users like to customize things. Like in firefox, how you can rearrange all the icons and menu’s and put them in one row or spread them out….well think of windicators as packaging up all these features so you can have the application look just the way you want. at least…thats how i see it. Autobots! roll out.

      Edit: I’m pretty iffy on this as well…just trying to stretch the idea to reason it out. I’d like to see it as a transition stage to giving applications a similar base for design….yah……
      Note: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Ayatana/Windicators#Placing windicators , if it develops customization will get better.

      • Carl

        I don’t see any notion of customisability included in the windicator idea. They’re just indicators crammed up in the title bar.

        I’m very sceptical of the idea. Also, maximised windows are going to result in a lot of icons all up in the top right. :/

        • http://twitter.com/KyleClarkeNZ Kyle Clarke

          which is a good argument to include a menu system like Cardapio as default.

  • ninjapirate89

    Seems completely pointless.

    • John

      I agree!

    • Anonymous

      I completely agree

  • DoR

    The F-Spot example seems pointless.

    • Anonymous

      Especially since F-Spot will not be included by default in 10.10

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/105818069612511054258 Mirek2

    I don’t know… I’m still not clear on what has a place as a windicator and what doesn’t. A sound windicator made nice sense (to indicate and set the sound for a window), a save windicator did (to indicate and set the saved state for a window), a user account windicator did, but I don’t get the point of contextual windicators for tagging and such.I mean, they:1) have no relationship to the window or the document opened within the window (so their placement on the title bar makes no sense)2) provide key functionality that should already be somewhere else within the interface3) provide such a broad definition of windicators that ANYTHING could be a windicator, and any UI aspect could be moved to the top of the window (this could be a lot worse than what happened with application indicators in the Windows taskbar)I mean, I like windicators as a concept, but I’m afraid that they’ll be overused. Really, an application should have four windicators tops, and, hopefully, most will just have 0 or 1.

    • Anonymous

      Agreed. So far, windicators seem like a solution in search of a problem. I still get the feeling Mark cooked up the idea after users started complaining about the button placement in Lucid (hoping it would shut them up).

      Do I really need another place to click to find application functions? I thought Ubuntu’s new mantra was “simplify”.

  • http://robjn.myopenid.com/ RobJN

    I thought I knew what the aim of these windicators were when they first announced them (e.g. quick reference for online/offline status, volume, unsaved) but looking at the examples now it just seems to be a move to get rid of status bars. It seems very unnatural to have to look at the program title bar for controls (e.g. zoom in GIMP).

    I think Alexei was spot on. Just leave it down to individual apps.

  • http://twitter.com/shishimaru1000 Salvatore Cresce

    Love these ideas. Great uncle Mark :P

  • Anonymous

    I don’t understand the F-Spot example. Surely that item would be in the toolbar? Why would you go all the way up to the top of the window to tag selected pictures?

    I think maybe some Zeitgeist and desktop integration would be better, rather than this.

  • http://el-bhm.myopenid.com/ el-bhm

    I don’t get how would I use windicators area as developer. I don’t get how would I use windicator area as a user.
    If you’re hitting in neither of those, you’ll be wasting your time. At very least by my book.

    The only proposed resolution I like Gimp’s one only. Pushing Ruler/Zoom/Mode(CMYK/RGB) there is neat idea that makes sens. Why? Because while working with this app we need screen estate. We really do. Gimp sucks at this big time. This is the reason.
    Evolution? F-Spot? FireFox? I don’t think so. These apps are good enough by them self.

    • http://twitter.com/tomdwright Tom Wright

      But wouldn’t this be a great way to stop plugin icons from littering your toolbar in firefox?

      • http://el-bhm.myopenid.com/ el-bhm

        No. It’s Mozilla’s fault. It’s their job to pull their shit together. Not Canonical’s.

  • Anonymous

    dang people here are drinking too much haterade
    http://operachic.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/haterade.jpg

    it’s clearly because the of the sucky sketch, if it were a cool mockup everyone would be drooling like always

    • ShastaMcShasta

      I would hope that people’s opinions aren’t solely influenced by the appearance of an obvious mock-up, whether it’s hand-drawn or shiny and polished. Most of the negative comments seem to be about not understanding the purpose of these new “windicators” and what problem they’re supposed to solve. Nothing about the quality of the sketch. I don’t yet see the purpose of this either, but that doesn’t mean I’m chugging the Haterade. I prefer orange juice, myself :P

      • sect2k

        I’ts not that we don’t understand the purpose, it’s the fact that they provide nothing useful, are not something that came out of a need, don’t solve any actual problems, go against all logic and are once more showing that ubuntu is fast becoming Mark’s personal “linux for bad ideas”.

  • insanelyapple

    windicator sounds like “windykator”, polish word for debt factor.

  • Anonymous

    When i read about windicators i have the same feeling when i read about Palm “Foleo” long time ago. It seens useless, i can’t even understand what problem they are trying to solve.

  • Anonymous

    Nah I’m good thanks. Hopefully I can get rid of them and keep my window controls there :) I have a will.

  • notbad

    the whole Ayatana team should be fired!

    • mpt

      There is no “Ayatana team”. You might be thinking of:
      * the Ayatana mailing list, but most of the people on that list are volunteers;
      * the Canonical Design team, but windicators weren’t our idea;
      * the Canonical Desktop Experience team, but windicators weren’t their idea either.

      • sect2k

        well someone should be fired as they are not doing their job. this whole windicators idea is bad as is the f-spot example above. Grow a pair and tell your boss he isn’t good at this.

    • Anonymous

      You have to remember; this was Mark’s idea.

      It’s simply up to the very talented and intelligent people at Canonical to try and make this idea work.

      • sect2k

        you’re wrong, the talented and intelligent people at Canonical should tell Mark that this idea is just bad, and that he really shouldn’t bother with UX as he is piss poor at it, but I guess they don’t have the guts to do it, which is sad IMAO.

  • SuicideKing

    Someone needs to stop Shuttleworth…

    He’s gone bat-shit, arse-wank, Tom Cruise crazy.

    Nobody needs this, nobody wants this. Linux for human beings? How about Linux for Mark’s huge fucking ego?

    • http://el-bhm.myopenid.com/ el-bhm
    • Anonymous

      Shuttleworth is doing what he think is best for ubuntu and he deserve credit, but you are completely free to change to another distro that doesn’t use windicators.

      • rs

        Why should I change my distro only because Mark is on an ego trip? I’d like to point you to the Ubuntu Code of Conduct:

        “When we disagree, we consult others. Disagreements, both social and technical, happen all the time and the Ubuntu community is no exception. It is important that we resolve disagreements and differing views constructively and with the help of the community and community processes.”

        I don’t see community processes at work here!

        • Anonymous

          Mark is the founder of ubuntu and canonical, it’s him who gives the final answer, if someone need stop him like you said then ubuntu will no longer exist.

          • rs

            Sorry to burst your bubble but Ubuntu is more than Mark. Ubuntu are the many coders who work unpaid in their free time. Ubuntu are all the guys in the support forums who try to provide quality help to newbies. Ubuntu are all people who report bugs, maintain repos, translate software and try to live up to the slogan of Ubuntu which is “Linux for human beings”.

            The community is the biggest asset of Ubuntu. Ignoring it will lead to downfall.

  • Anonymous

    than wasting time on pointless features why not fix bugs that really highlight how unpolished the ubuntu desktop is compared to a Mac
    Like this bug
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/388904

    • xshaneyx

      Exactly. This is something I have been saying since the release of Lucid.
      Not that I don’t think Lucid is good, I think it’s the best ubuntu release I’ve used it’s just that there are still too many niggling bugs and too many things that are just not finished or fully implemented.
      I wish they would just see one of these “revolutionary” ideas through from start to finish and THEN move on to the next big idea.
      One really well implemented idea is worth so much more than a dozen half-arsed and half finished ideas.
      In fact I’m so sick of seeing the napkin presentations that feel like lots of time and effort wasted on things that aren’t needed, I find myself noticing more useful but less high profile ideas from people like Mandrive, openSUSE, Fedora etc.

  • John

    This is pointless…

  • Juancarlospaco

    If you dont like it, Fork it.

  • http://rcarvalho.myopenid.com/ Rodrigo Carvalho

    I think windicators will be great but I agree the example was awfull…

  • daas88

    *Sigh* This change doesn’t bother me that much, but I don’t think my father will like to have all that crap on the window, he will most likely curse when he tries to close a window and click a windicator instead (because I suppose we won’t be able to change the window controls anymore).

    Mr. Shuttleworth eliminates the tooltips in the indicators because “they clutter” the desktop but then he puts a bunch of icons on the titlebar. I don’t understand what he is thinking…

  • Duncan Lock

    I agree with everyone else – the whole windicators thing seems…. utterly pointless and lame. The reason that all the examples and mockups provided so far don’t make sense, or seem useless, is because the whole concept is a deeply flawed solution in search of a problem.

    Fortunately this is linux, so there are plenty of other options.

  • Pvelkovski

    Reading this post I just got a wonderful idea. Let’s make new kind of applications. The applications would consist only of Title bar. No need for anything else because all the functionality of the application will be put in windicator menus. This would also solve the waisted space problem because it is not the title bar or the status bar that take the most space on our screens. It is the application window itself.

    Tagging photos using windicators. That is a wonderful idea.

    I think Mark’s brain got irradiated badly while he was visiting space. Or he was abducted by brain eating aliens.

  • Ubuntu

    Very useless

  • Antonio

    Argh Comic Sans! :-P

    • mpt

      Sir, you have insulted my handwriting. I challenge you to a duel.

  • sllih

    “Whenever Firefox regards the current page as having a secure connection, and windicators are available, there should be a security windicator instead of the padlock in Firefox’s status bar.”

    Trying to take information out of context? Poor design, to be honest. Many other windicators share this issue. IMHO.

  • vervelover

    The problem here is that people think those windicator are there to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. But who ever said they were supposed to solve a problem? I think it’s just a new concept, made to be new, and not to solve anything. And when it’s done, we’ll see what it’s worth.

    The real problem is the nonsense of gnome-shell, thank God Mark has an alternative vision for Ubuntu (and GNOME).

  • Jason Harvey

    *sigh* This is pointless. Just another thing I’ll have to uninstall later on.