[Gaim-devel] Proposed Improvements to Buddy List Layout

[Steven G. <ste...@si...>]

As part of the most recent PREFSLASH campaign, the "Show Buddy Icon" 
pref seems to have it's head on the chopping block. I'm all for killing 
prefs - but I use this one. Since I can't ask others to give up prefs 
they use without doing the same, I took a closer look at why I turn 
buddy icons off to see if we could make the default (on) behaviour more 
palatable.

On the of primary issues with buddy icons in a multi-protocol app is 
that not every buddy has one. Some protocols don't even allow them.

I think the idea of having a small photo/icon for each contact makes a 
lot of sense. However, a quick scan of my own buddy list shows that 9 
out of my 29 contacts have buddy icons. To be fair, we have a jabber 
server at work, so I probably have more jabber buddies (no icons) than 
most people. Even without my jabber contacts, though, I would have only 
9 of 19 buddies with icons.

Then, of those 9 buddy icons, I have three human faces, a corporate 
logo, a night sky, a horse, a dog, two pylons (!?), and a firefox. My 
point is that people tend to pick stupid buddy icons.

Since some buddies (and protocols) don't have icons, and some of the 
ones that do are lame, I'd like to be able to replace them with my own 
local icons. Skimming my list, I think I have (or could find on the 
web), a real photo of each person on my list. Perhaps 
evolution-data-server integration my come into play here (if I have 
photos for people in my e-d-s contact list)?

The second issue I have with turning on buddy icons is that it ads a 
whole new column to the buddy list. Now I have the protocol icons (large 
and not very meaningful), the names, and the third column of buddy icons.

What if we got rid of this third column and showed the buddy icon in the 
primary location, in place of the protocol icon when there is a buddy 
icon available? The extra mini-icons that are super-imposed over the 
protocol icons (away/busy, etc.) could be super-imposed over the buddy 
icons just as well.

The only thing we'd be losing would be immediate visual indication of 
the protocol of each buddy. I don't think that is something we always 
need to see - and it is easily accessible via the mouse-over popup info. 
This would also mean there would be something to show/fall-back-on when 
there is buddy icon available (fall back on the protocol icon, like we 
do now - or even a generic "buddy" icon).

I think it could simplify the Buddy List window a lot and bring lovers 
and haters of the "Show Buddy Icon" mode closer to both being happy with 
a single default (and dropping the pref).

I put together a quick mockup to show what I mean: 
http://actsofvolition.com/images/screenshots/gaim-buddy-icon-mockup.png

Make any sense? Let me know - thanks,
Steven Garrity