quote:
Originally posted by KeyStorm
Well, point by point:
Open new contact window: I see several problems. People might think it means add a new contact to the list, add/invite a contact to the conversation or open a new conversation with this contact. This, ofcourse would be partially solved with accurate tooltips and titles, but still it would not be as intuitive as it should. Also, it takes one double click on the Messenger tray icon to open the contact list and choose the contact. Send an instant Message is not modified by Plus!' Custom Contact Names, so what users with that option enables (quite a few), will only see email addresses, like in the invite box. Also it is much easier to open a conversation from the Contact List. It would be a problem, in my honest opinion.
Close button: Exactly below there is an exact equal button that closes the conversation/tab. If any use, it had to close _all_ tabs. However this would be very dangerous, because it may be mistaken with closing only a tab with catastrophic effects.
Detach button: I'd agree on that if it wasn't for the next reason: It is hardly used and there's already a mouse combination to do it (Middle-click, but probably double-click in the future beta versions)
Navigation Arrows: They already exist. Not in a form of "navigating through tab groups", but scrolling across tabs that ay be hidden outside the visible tab bar for space reasons.
Sorry to be skeptic, but we're testing it and I can tell you what is needed, what not, and what would annoy. 
Open a new tab: I actually find that right-clicking+send an instant message is way better. Offline contacts are not included. Besides, it is not laggy. I don't know how you think that clicking one button is harder than openning the contact list and scroll down the laggy list. :/ If you think that the send an instant message thing is too hard because it is in e-mails, then I guess that Patchoue could make a new window for contacts in nicknames, or even just a list like the start menu. As for the confusion that may cause due to the add new contact button, like I have said, I lazily made the picture and the buttons can be something else.
I think that people won't be that confused though, since when you click at the button once, you know what it does and should be able to remember what it does. Besides that, the button is near the tabs, which indicates that it does something about tabs.
Close button: I thought that the default close button is for closing the window, not a tab. If that is for closing a tab and the upper one is for closing a window, then that is weird IMO. The default one is already for closing window, which should be left as it is to avoid confusion. The one I made is actually near the tabs, which should indicates how it relates to tabs.
Detach button: Though I nerver used it on Trillian, it does have some obvious use. For example, when there are two people chatting with you very actively, you would be annoyhed when you have to switch tabs all the times. Seperating the tabs into different windows makes life a lot easier to me.
Navigation Arrows: If it already exists, then there is no problem to talk about this now.
My main concern is how the tabs bar is horizontally above the con, while the current thing plus! (beta) has (according to some blog) is actually vertical and wastes a lot of space, IMO.
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