Dim application icon when it is not playing anything
AbandonedPublic

Authored by broulik on Sep 11 2018, 11:18 AM.

Details

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None
Group Reviewers
Plasma
VDG
Summary

When a stream is present but not playing anything ("corked"), show icon slightly translucent

BUG: 398476
FIXED-IN: 5.16.0

Test Plan

VLC is playing, Chrome has a paused video open


Two paused videos

The information is the same used to determin whether to show the audio indicator in Task Manager and isn't super reliable but it's a nice subtle info

Diff Detail

Repository
R115 Plasma Audio Volume Applet
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broulik created this revision.Sep 11 2018, 11:18 AM
Restricted Application added a project: Plasma. · View Herald TranscriptSep 11 2018, 11:18 AM
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broulik requested review of this revision.Sep 11 2018, 11:18 AM
broulik edited the test plan for this revision. (Show Details)
broulik edited the test plan for this revision. (Show Details)

That dimming effect might be too subtle on a brightly colored app icon. How about dimming the black volume icon instead of or in addition to the app icon?

broulik added a comment.EditedSep 11 2018, 11:21 AM

We need to take care to not make it confusing with the "muted" state where it fades the slider
Also if we fade the volume icon, might indicate "disabled", "why can't I mute this"?


Fading the mute button doesn't make that big of a diference

Hmm. Here's another idea: we could badge the app icon with player-volume-muted, maybe.

I just worry a bit that lightening the app icon may be too subtle, and people might see it as a bug or wonder why it looks different.

I like it. I agree though to maybe make them a bit lighter.

Basically +1 on the concept, but I think we need to make the appearance a bit more distinct between playing vs non-playing. I've thrown out some ideas, and I'm open to others. Reducing the opacity even further would work. Adding a little tiny piece of text that says "Not currently playing" to the right of the app name could work too, especially in conjunction with the reduced opacity.

How about changing the volume icon for the non-playing application to audio-volume-muted.svg? Then, when it is playing audio, it reverts to low/high icons as usual, based on slider location.

How about changing the volume icon for the non-playing application to audio-volume-muted.svg? Then, when it is playing audio, it reverts to low/high icons as usual, based on slider location.

Additional to that, the volume slider colors can be grayed out when not playing?

How about changing the volume icon for the non-playing application to audio-volume-muted.svg? Then, when it is playing audio, it reverts to low/high icons as usual, based on slider location.

Additional to that, the volume slider colors can be grayed out when not playing?

That happens already when the stream is muted, so we can't re-use the effect for this.

All of that is reserved for being "Muted". Just because it doesn't play something doesn't mean it couldn't start producing sound any moment.
We shouldn't use anything that could be confused as "muted" ("can never make any sound") for "not playing currently"

All of that is reserved for being "Muted". Just because it doesn't play something doesn't mean it couldn't start producing sound any moment.
We shouldn't use anything that could be confused as "muted" ("can never make any sound") for "not playing currently"

I see what you mean, I thought we had a "muted" icon. The volume icon with a slash in the middle.

All of that is reserved for being "Muted". Just because it doesn't play something doesn't mean it couldn't start producing sound any moment.
We shouldn't use anything that could be confused as "muted" ("can never make any sound") for "not playing currently"

How about using audio-volume-low? Maybe drop opacity to 50%?

Ideally the volume lines would show how loud an application currently is by having an equalizer-like overlay on the blue volume bar.

For now I think having the icons with less transparency is confusing. At least for me it doesn't seem intuitive enough what it means and it might open up possibilites where some icons look weird when dimmed.

Adding icons to all apps that are currently not playing would clutter things up since there's usually more apps open that are not playing anything than vice-versa.

I thought about adding another volume icon to the bottom-right side of the app icons but that would probably look weird right next to the other volume icon. Maybe someone can come up with a better idea?

Maybe something like this?

mart added a subscriber: mart.Nov 23 2018, 2:34 PM

Maybe something like this?

I like this way

broulik planned changes to this revision.Nov 26 2018, 9:44 AM
meven edited the summary of this revision. (Show Details)Apr 18 2019, 7:57 AM
meven added a subscriber: meven.
In D15418#364811, @mart wrote:

Maybe something like this?

I like this way

Friendly ping ;)

meven added a comment.Apr 18 2019, 7:58 AM
In D15418#364811, @mart wrote:

Maybe something like this?

I like this way

Friendly ping ;)

I could take over @broulik if you'd prefer.

broulik added a comment.EditedApr 18 2019, 8:03 AM

Not a huge fan of this giant gap tbh, but feel free to.

Could we just group them like we do on the devices tab?

gvgeo added a subscriber: gvgeo.Jan 13 2020, 11:27 AM

Maybe something like this?

This feels too much. There is no need to be so obvious, just need to be able to differentiate when there are multiple streams.

Can't we dim label instead? It easier to distinguish with other labels, as they have the same color.

This is with opacity 0.6. It could be more obvious with 0.55 or 0.5.

broulik added a comment.EditedJan 31 2020, 4:19 PM

Can't we dim label instead?

I quite like that. Also not very obvious what it means, I guess..

alexde added a subscriber: alexde.EditedJan 31 2020, 4:43 PM

Can't we dim label instead?

I quite like that. Also not very obvious what it means, I guess..

Not sure if it was already discussed, but what about adding an overlay pause-icon, similar to D3302? Maybe this is easier to understand?

gvgeo added a comment.Feb 7 2020, 4:16 PM

...what about adding an overlay pause-icon, similar to D3302?...

This could be interpreted as a button.

Not that we removed the audiostream description, can add a message to the right (No output)

Although I like none of these two. I prefer simply dimming the label.

broulik abandoned this revision.May 29 2020, 7:26 AM

I'd prefer some dimmed label next to the app name but with the radio button and manual size calculations all over the place now, this is difficult