UI suggestion: contact list should pulse, not flash

danridley · Post by **danridley** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 2:47 am

When a contact is typing, has unviewed content, goes online or offline etc, they currently flash in the contact list. It seems like it would be much more "OS X-like" if they were to pulse instead. (I can't think of a whole lot of examples of flashing *or* pulsing interface elements in OS X, but the Universal Access "Flash Screen" is one example where it's attention-getting, but still a smoother transition than a simple color change).

TheSilverFox06 · Post by **TheSilverFox06** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 3:21 am

In the current 0.8 beta, the color in the contact list remains solid instead of flashing. I personally find it much more pleasing to the eye than either flashing or pulsing.

danridley · Post by **danridley** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 3:27 am

Thanks for the quick reply. Solid is certainly better than flashing. Pulsing might still be a handy option (easy to see from across the room), but solid is *way* better than flashing :-)

Post by **evands** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:02 am

Flashing is still available in the advanced contact list prefs, btw... but off by default.

I would love pulsing instead, but it's just way too CPU intensive, especially for transparent contact lists which are quite common.

danridley · Post by **danridley** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 12:39 am

evands wrote:I would love pulsing instead, but it's just way too CPU intensive, especially for transparent contact lists which are quite common.

Is that the sort of thing that could be passed off to Core Image and handled by the GPU? (That'd make it a Tiger-only feature, I know.)

Post by **evands** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 2:07 am

danridley wrote:
evands wrote:I would love pulsing instead, but it's just way too CPU intensive, especially for transparent contact lists which are quite common.
Is that the sort of thing that could be passed off to Core Image and handled by the GPU? (That'd make it a Tiger-only feature, I know.)

Possibly... but doing it that way might require the entire contact list being rendered in core image, which would mean a significant rewrite hot on the heels of a huge rewrite to get the contact list to where it is right now. Once Tiger goes public, neat uses of Core Image will certainly be something we'll be looking at