1084250 - Talk icon colour states are confusing

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1131542

(Hello (Loop) :: Client, defect)

Description

[Christopher Van Wiemeersch [:cvan]]

Attachment: [1] screenshot of unfilled talk icon

1. Launch Firefox.
2. Notice the Loop icon is of a gray, unfilled talk bubble [1]. (The accessibility text on hover says "Start a Conversation.")
3. Click the talk icon.
4. Sign in.
    a. Click the settings gear.
    b. Click the "Sign In" link in the menu that appears.
    c. Sign in to Firefox Accounts.
5. Notice after a few seconds the Loop icon becomes a blue, filled talk bubble [2]. (The accessibility text is the same.)
6. Click the Loop icon.
7. Notice the blue, filled Loop icon reverts to a gray, unfilled talk bubble (and the Loop pane opens) [3].

––

Expected results:
The Loop icon remains blue and filled as long as I am signed in and my session is active. The Loop icon reverts to the gray and unfilled icon when I sign out or my session expires.

Actual results:
The Loop icon becomes blue when I sign in. And it stays blue until I open the pane. And only then does the icon revert to the gray, unfilled one.

––

I'm familiar with the whole unread/read design pattern. I think of GitHub's Notifications. When I have a read/message, the icon [4] becomes highlighted with a blue icon [5].

What is the blue icon supposed to denote? That I just logged in? What if I don't notice it immediately after signing in? Or what if I do notice it, then wonder why did just become gray/unfilled? Did I actually sign out by clicking that button? Is the talk button actually a log-out button?

These may all seem like silly questions, but I don't think these are unreasonable things for a user to think (power user or not).

If the two different coloured icons are going to stick around, I propose either having the colour/fill denote the login state or treat it as a notification indicator (potentially with a badge indicating the number of notifications, unread messages, etc.). That's at least what I've come to expect from other interfaces.

Apologies if I'm being obtuse - this was quite confusing to me, and I'd expect it to cause confusion in some (many?) users.

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[1] https://www.dropbox.com/s/mtple5mvm6vvjfy/Screenshot%202014-10-17%2000.38.51.png?dl=0
[2] https://www.dropbox.com/s/1p87baoofuctg4n/Screenshot%202014-10-17%2000.34.10.png?dl=0
[3] https://www.dropbox.com/s/9z6mn50fh23ggve/Screenshot%202014-10-17%2000.39.53.png?dl=0

[4] https://www.dropbox.com/s/7of1vr3k0d2ejot/Screenshot%202014-10-17%2001.04.45.png?dl=0
[5] https://www.dropbox.com/s/edl0jluj0l93x11/Screenshot%202014-10-17%2001.04.27.png?dl=0

[6] https://www.dropbox.com/s/bw3fov3uz9xuk2h/Screenshot%202014-10-16%2023.51.01.png?dl=0

––

P.S. I can't seem to figure out the STR, but I was somehow able to get into a state where I was able to keep the pane open and the bubble icon remained blue [6].

Comment 1

[Christopher Van Wiemeersch [:cvan]]

Attachment: [2] screenshot of filled talk icon

Comment 2

[Christopher Van Wiemeersch [:cvan]]

Attachment: [3] screenshot of pane open and unfilled talk icon

Comment 3

[Christopher Van Wiemeersch [:cvan]]

Attachment: [4] screenshot of GitHub's notifications (all read)

Comment 4

[Christopher Van Wiemeersch [:cvan]]

Attachment: [5] screenshot of GitHub's notifications (unread)

Comment 5

[Christopher Van Wiemeersch [:cvan]]

Attachment: [6] screenshot of pane open and filled talk icon

Comment 6

[u279076]

This is working as designed. I actually raised this in the original implementation bug and it was shot down.

Comment 7

[Matthew N. [:MattN]]

In this case the button colour is indicating a state change (login) in the panel. I originally asked about changing the tooltip text for the different icon states but was told that it wasn't needed.

Since the feature works without being logged in, it's not like other messaging apps where "not signed in" == "not able to receive calls". Since our icon set is normally greyscale, I don't think the icon should stay a different color is the normal logged in state.

I implemented the spec[1] as I understood it so it's up to Darrin as to whether it should change.

[1] https://people.mozilla.org/~dhenein/labs/loop-mvp-spec/#toolbar

Comment 8

[Darrin Henein [:darrin]]

At some point before the above steps, this user set his status to Do Not Disturb. The unfilled icon represents do not disturb/unreachable.

Blue icon represents a notification/change, i.e. you became signed in.

Filled grey icon represents normal mode, i.e. reachable (signed in or not).

Matt, I'm open to revisiting more explanatory tooltips, which were not really in scope for the MVP.

Comment 9

[:shell escalante]

Hi Darrin, i need your take on this and what the recommended behavior should be and we'll put it on list to change it.

Comment 10

[Darrin Henein [:darrin]]

I think for now, the behavior is fine. The only follow-up I think we should do is look into adding more explanatory tooltips.

Comment 11

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

We've defined tooltips for all the current states in bug 1131542, so forward-duping to that bug.