[Baloo KCM] Mention the brand name "Baloo" in user-visible strings
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Authored by ngraham on Nov 12 2019, 7:56 PM.

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VDG
Baloo
Summary

Otherwise users who know the term "Baloo" might not make the connection, and also in
general it's good to expose our brand names to users rather than hiding them.

BUG: 351646
FIXED-IN: 5.18

Test Plan

The name is now visible in the tooltip and explanatory text on top.

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Repository
R119 Plasma Desktop
Branch
mention-baloo (branched from master)
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Build Status
Buildable 18727
Build 18745: arc lint + arc unit
ngraham created this revision.Nov 12 2019, 7:56 PM
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ngraham requested review of this revision.Nov 12 2019, 7:56 PM

Otherwise users who know the term "Baloo" might not make the connection, and also in
general it's good to expose our brand names to users rather than hiding them.

Previously we've deliberately made a very conscious decision to not throw random backend terms in the user's face.
It makes using a UI harder if there's random made up words in the middle of it.

I don't see a compelling reason to change.

This isn't random; Baloo is a brand name with a logo in progress (D24957). We have a HIG page about this: https://hig.kde.org/style/writing/brandnames.html. Baloo is even mentioned there as an example of a brand name. :)

the TL;DR version is that if we give something a catchy codename that we use to refer to it--especially in communication with users in the form of bug reports, release announcements, and social media comments and postings--we need to accept that it's a brand name and then surface it in the UI so that users can learn it. We already did this for KRunner in Plasma 5.17 (previous it was referred to with the nondescript and non-promo-friendly term "Plasma Search") and nobody complained to my knowledge.

release announcements, and social media comments and postings

Lets be careful about mixing up the users that we interact with vs our actually wider userbase who don't really care about or follow anything KDE. They just use it.

Anyway, I'm not absolutely blocking this, but I do want to share history and previous discussions. I'm confident the old HIG said explicitly not to do this.

I would like more people to weigh in especially @bruns.

I would also say that 'Baloo' means nothing to users, and File search should be used instead. It's an internal name, not really a brand.

I would also say that 'Baloo' means nothing to users, and File search should be used instead. It's an internal name, not really a brand.

It's an internal name that has its own logo and that we use in communication to users in release announcements. It's a widely-used name in social media. Even if we didn't indend for it to be a brand name, it happened anyway, so at this point we can ignore that, or embrace it.

What about "Baloo file search"?

What about "Baloo file search"?

That's exactly what this patch changes it to in the tooltip and help text.

Somehow I also feel Baloo is not a name to be surfaced...

  1. It's not really a brand, and if it was, it would have a terrible reputation due to all the user frustration accumulated.
  2. Those users on social media who know the name "Baloo" follow KDE development or have faced specific Baloo issues that made them learn the name. I agree with @davidedmundson in that the wider audience might be more confused by the change rather than enlightened.
  3. FWIW in Russian localization, the name "KRunner" was replaced everywhere with "Search and launch field", since "KRunner" does not mean anything to people who do not speak English.
ngraham abandoned this revision.Dec 7 2019, 12:12 AM

All right, sounds like I'm fighting the tide on this one. :)