Public bug reported:
Placing the onscreen keyboard in a menu puts it too far away from the
user (2-clicks) and non-obvious.
Most modern UIs have a single button to trigger the onscreen keyboard,
and this is usually indicated quite clearly by a keyboard-looking icon.
Unity, however, puts this in a non-descript menu with an icon consisting
of only 4 squares. The user has to know what this means, at first. If
the user does manage to work out that this is where the keyboard can be
triggered, again the option is unclear. Instead of "Onscreen keyboard"
we have "Show onboard". No mention of a keyboard at all!
I understand that this design decision was probably made when
touchscreens were rare and mainly used for accessibility. The people
who did use it probably didn't switch it on and off regularly. However,
with the advent of tablets without keyboards it's normal user behaviour
to switch the keyboard on and off regularly as needed. Thus the current
behaviour seems non-intuitive and frustrating in this context. 2-clicks
is 1-click too many.
I also understand that this is technically an applet. However, the
indicator is triggered by the Unity setting "On Screen Keyboard" so I
see this as a Unity issue. Maybe we need to choose/build a better
indicator? Is there something we can use from a newer Unity UI?
In summary:
- "Show onboard" should be moved out of a menu and into an icon that clearly
depicts a keyboard.
- We should invert or colour the icon when it is in use.
- All other options currently in that menu ("Preferences", "Help") can be moved
to Settings
** Affects: unity (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: touch
** Attachment added: "The accessibility indicator dropdown menu showing "Show
Onboard" which activates the onscreen keyboard."
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1632506/+attachment/4759636/+files/slice_0_1.gif
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1632506
Title:
Onscreen Keyboard is too far away and not obvious
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