Re: [E-devel] Network Manager

[Stefan S. <st...@da...>]

Hello.

On Thu, 2008-05-08 at 10:09, Atton Jonathan wrote:
> On Wed, 7 May 2008 21:47:44 +0200
> Stefan Schmidt <st...@da...> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Sounds good. Some first ideas:
> > o Gadget for the shelf to show signal strength for wifi, gsm/3g
> >   and indicates what kind of connection is used atm.
> > o Click on the gadget shows available wifi networks, and other
> >   network connections like ethernet (Only with connected cable?) and
> >   wireless broadband modems.
> Show all the interface with their state, a picture for example (not
> link, not activate  ...), as exalt does. I think it's better to have a
> complete status of the computer.

I'm looking at the following picture:
http://watchwolf.fr/wiki/lib/exe/fetch.php?cache=cache&media=28_08_07_desktop.jpg

Personally I can't understand from a look at the panel what
connection is active and used. eth2 and eth3 both have IP address
assigned. Which one is the one in use? Both? Describing that eth2,
why do we need to know the device name, is a wireless device would be
helpful. Only after looking at the config window I realized that the
satellite antenna is an icon for the wifi card.

Bar for network strength for wifi or gsm/3g networks would be helpful,
too.

People can learn the meaning of stuff they see or they can just
understand it because it is easy enough. I prefer the later. Lazy guy.
:)

Besides that I'm fine with this kind of panel.

> > o Some kind of advanced settings UI. Handling stored connections,
> >   set IP address, stuff for complicated wifi setup, etc.. Not sure
> >   how connected this should be to the gadget.
> > 
> 
> Personally I don't like the apps with a lot of windows as gnome-applet,
> I prefer 1 window, with a list of interfaces and for each interface 1
> frame. An advanced mode can be use for some options (run a command, the
> wpa_supplicant drivers ...), something you don't change each days.

Yeah, nm-applet is sometimes "don't bother the user with anything"
fanatic here. :)

Different frames for different stuff is fine for me. Defining what to
put in which frame is of course a totally different story. The wireless
card frame looks a bit full to me. But that are details.

The main outstanding question is imho *who* likes to take care of the
UI? I'm neither an usability expert nor an interaction designer and I
guess not much people here are. So, who steps up and likes to do this
job?

Designing the UI could be well done in parallel to the backends. Get
some mock-ups ready and we connect the things when they are ready.

regards
Stefan Schmidt