On 03/19/2013 07:28 AM, Allan Day wrote:
Máirín Duffy duffy@fedoraproject.org wrote:
On Mon 18 Mar 2013 05:54:42 PM EDT, Clyde E. Kunkel wrote:
I am not a programmer, but, that said, why can't you put a decent sized fedora logo above the users section. If the number of users exceeds a certain number, then create a window with a slider bar on the right. This just does not seem like rocket science. :-)
Isn't GNOME shell primarily designed as a single-user experience?
I think it's a good idea to special case the single user case. We still want to provide a good multi-user experience though.
How frequently are we expecting there to be a case where there are enough users in the list for a logo placed as suggested by Ray in comment 13 (https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=694912#c13)
Even if it is a corner case, it's something we should handle, I think.
I see a 'solution' looking for a problem here. The problem isn't the Fedora logo looks bad when given exactly 9 pixels of vertical space (what logo would?) The problem is... I'm really not sure what. Can you help me understand? I see this multi-monitor use related bug has been cited:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=685852
It says "The distribution logo is displayed in the middle above the list. This visually clashes with the layout of the rest of the login screen. It would be better to place the logo in the top-left hand corner of the screen, in the top bar. "
There is no screenshot, so I am unsure of how it 'visually clashes' with the rest of the login screen, and I'm not sure what it has to do with multi-monitor, if anything. A GNOME wiki link is provided, which I clicked on (https://live.gnome.org/Boston2012/Multimonitor) and found the exact same text:
"The distribution logo is displayed in the middle above the list. This visually clashes with the layout of the rest of the login screen. It would be better to place the logo in the top-left hand corner of the screen, in the top bar. #685852"
Please help me understand what exactly the problem is here?
A bit of background:
The change during the 3.8 cycle was based on a couple of factors. First, the logo interfered with the layout of the login screen: it's a prominent visual presence that creates another anchor point which conflicts with the other elements on the screen (ie. it is horizontally centered, which clashes with the anchor points in the user list).
I agree with this. The alignment of the usernames to the left while the full logo (with both logo and logotype) was centre aligned did not really work.
However were any other alignment / layout options considered here? if we reduced the design to just the logo, you lose some of the interference between the anchor points of the logo and the userlist layout:
http://ryanlerch.fedorapeople.org/login/justthelogo.png
Or could the usernames be presented in a out horizontal layout? (although, this one makes the login screen very close to the OSX designs)
http://ryanlerch.fedorapeople.org/login/horizontal.png
Second, the logo was felt to be a distracting presence. We've made an effort to make sure that the most important elements are the most visually prominent, and we want the primary interaction points to be the ones that jump out at you. The logo was a strong visual presence placed above the user list: this drew the eye to it, making it the first thing you saw, and distracted you from the parts of the screen that are actually useful to the user (ie. the user list).
Were any tests done to prove the hypothesis that the placement of the old fedora logo was distracting users from the interactive parts of the screen? If that was the issue that was trying to be solved, was any thought given to putting the logo towards the bottom of the screen?
http://ryanlerch.fedorapeople.org/login/logobottom.png
My preference is to focus the user interface on providing the best user experience possible. That means prioritising the things that people need to use, reducing distraction and making the UI look great. The addition of a logo diminishes the user experience along each of these dimensions.
The proposal to replace the logo with a simple string in the top-left hand corner is intended to mitigate the negative impact of including a logo while retaining a visual reference to the distributor. However, the usability issue that Ryan brought up is a valid concern about this proposal.
It has been suggested that not including the logo somehow weakens distributions' ability to brand their products. My view is that this is not the case. Branding is not the practice of slapping logos onto products. Instead, it is the attempt to instill and promote positive associations with the brand. The best way to do that, in my opinion, is to make the user experience as good as it can possibly be.
True, you want to promote positive associations with a brand. And if the logo is too prominent, or there are too many logos, you end up diluting the brand. If all text is bold, nothing stands out.
http://ryanlerch.fedorapeople.org/login/logotoomany.png
However if the mark of the brand is *nowhere* you are merely promoting positive associations with a generic grey background.
http://ryanlerch.fedorapeople.org/login/nologo.png
I am not suggesting that we slap logo(s) over everything, simply include a clear definition to the user of brand at the point they start using the system.
regards, ryanlerch