Update "Domains Widget" icon to Cute Qube styled icon

[ninavizz]

Child issue within #5807

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The problem you're addressing (if any) When users are new to Qubes, it is confusing to them that there are two menu items in the top bar with a "Q" as their visible icon. Namely, it is confusing that the intuitive nickname to observed users for both, is the "Q-Menu;" not "The App Menu" or "The Domains Menu."

Describe the solution you'd like The solution is two-fold.

1. When #5676 is pushed live, also change the icon for the domains menu to reflect the below update. This will provide two visually distinct icons in the top bar; a singluar UI element to users who are non-technical, and do not disambiguate "the tray" from "the start/app menu button."

2. Rename "The App Menu" to "The Q Menu," in documentation. This will be intuitive to native Mac users, and should be intuitive to Linux and Windows users, if in fact there is only one UI element in the top bar with the Qubes logo as its triggerable icon.

Where is the value to a user, and who might that user be? A majority of journalists in the Global North, are Mac users. They want to use Qubes because of its security properties, and thus far have expressed the complete QubesOS experience to be highly figure-out-able... but with a very, very steep initial learning curve.

Among the pain-points we've noticed in early trainings, is confusion around the presence of two top-bar controls with the Qubes logo in them. Likewise, as non-Windows and non-Linux users, they are not acclimated to the naming convention of "Start Menu" or "App Menu" for the left-most menu on the screen. As such, many have come to nickname that area as "The Q Menu," and are then at a loss for what to call the Domains menu.

Additional context User findings gathered from user research in service to the SecureDrop Workstation project. This is not an official FPF request, but a Nina request.

Also, the "Cute Qube" icon for the blue domain, is slightly different from this one. It uses a darker blue for the illuminated sides of the cube.

[ninavizz]

Required artwork, here. Let me know if I missed any sizes... :)

UPDATE: Created with updated artwork, and a slightly different blue from the Blue Qube icon.

QuteDomainMenu.zip

[ninavizz]

Comment from @eloquence in #5520 speaks to usability problem described above.

[ninavizz]

Note: In a future iteration, I would also like to make this black-and-white, in parallel with my broader interest in restricting use of color in the Tray to domain-indication only—as otherwise, it's not intuitive to users that some colors indicate a domain's functionality, whereas others are just for aesthetics.

As things stand now, tho, there's so much color in the bar that without any gradients a black-and-white icon next to the drive looks... odd? Maybe not.

[brendanhoar]

I think you're right to point out that dom0/GUIVM* icons should all be black-and-white to differentiate them from VM-specific icons.

B

[marmarta]

@ninavizz , I finally got around to this (sorry for taking so long!). I'm going to push the blue version, but on the whole, I'm very much for changing the dom0 / gui domain tools to be black /grayscale.

[qubesos-bot]

Automated announcement from builder-github

The package qubes-desktop-linux-manager-4.1.6-1.fc32 has been pushed to the r4.1 testing repository for dom0. To test this update, please install it with the following command:

sudo qubes-dom0-update --enablerepo=qubes-dom0-current-testing

Changes included in this update

[ninavizz]

Got it, I owe Marta a black/gray version—had not pulled that from your last comment, Marta! Yeah, the current blue-ish one, I'd done to pick-up on Qubes' brand colors... but I can also see how it'd too easily be mistaken for simply "a blue qube."

[deeplow]

I wonder if the default having a particular qube color (e.g. blue) will make some users think that's for their work qube and not realize its' something for all the qubes.

[ninavizz]

@deeplow The intent of the two-tone blue, was for the Domains qube to distinctly not look like the "blue qube" blue... however, you making your comment affirms that I was the only person in the universe who saw that distinction. :D

Also, see above comment. Yeah, I'd started to figure I was the only one seeing that as somehow unique, apart from the blue qube's blue. Looking forward to seeing this gray-on-gray version! Also @marmarta I made this a touch smaller than the full 20x20 size; these are all 18x16, and then sized-up from there. Hopefully that can help with the odd #6826 issues?

grey-domains.zip

[deeplow]

Oh. Right. I just skimmed through this issue and missed that. I think without having them side-by-side one wouldn't tell the difference.

The gray one (although possibly confused with the grey qube) may be better and goes in the direction of making things grey when non-notication-y. Another idea could be a qube with just the edges colored. But that may have issues of its own (like the user not being able to see it clearly).

[ninavizz]

@deeplow Sooo... longer-term, I'd honestly like to just phase-out the Domains widget. Longer term, meaning once the appmenu has received reasonable user acceptance. Probably in 4.3.

I agree, there is not really an intuitive icon for it. I also created a qute qube variation, to signify Standalone qubes. Note, that the qube itself is only 20x20 in the Tray. There is only so much that an icon that small, can meaningfully communicate. I want to be careful to limit variations on the qute-qube, so that all of them can retain clear meaning for users.

As it is, presenting the qube in a fashion that can read as "not colored," feels like the most neutral way to present a thing that tells a user what's going on with their running qubes. And yet the visual difference between the qubes brand colored blue domains widget icon and the blue qube icon, is more stark and clear than the difference between the gray qube and the grayscale domains widget icon.

The reason I created the domains widget icon in the qubes brand colors, in the first place, was to make it as similar to the existing "Q" icon in the Tray, so that users could more easily recognize it. I'm fearful that with a grayscale icon, it's less likely to receive intuitive recognition.

So... all of this is to say, grayscale vs qubes-brand-blues, feels like six of one and half a dozen of the other. And, not a problem with longevity behind it, so not one that feels really important to solve, well.

Maybe just an icon of a whole pie (the desert, not the chart) with a slice cut out of it? That would just be completely weird and 100% metaphor, lol. sigh

[UndeadDevel]

It seems like this issue can either be closed or should be renamed, as the original issue (reflected in the current title) has been solved.

[andrewdavidwong]

Closing as completed. If anyone believes this issue is not yet completed, or if anyone is still affected by this issue, please leave a comment, and we'll be happy to reopen it. Thank you.