Yesterday morning on the bus I was talking to Dan and asked if Network Manager could export a signal when it is actively searching for networks. As I mentioned in the previous post and many people pointed out in the comments that we need some feedback when the wireless card is actively looking for new networks. The situation where this happens most often is a laptop resuming from a suspend. When the laptop wakes Network Manager clears it’s AP list and starts scanning channels filling the fresh list. As it finds new networks and fills the AP list NM doesn’t tell the UI (nm-applet) that it is actively searching for new networks. Often the only feedback that the user receives is when NM finds a network it knows and begins to connect to it.
To improve this scenario we need some real user feedback during the scan process. I don’t think using an animated icon to show that NM is scanning is necessary, I think it might actually make things a little too busy.
Currently NM will display this “network disconnected” icon even while the wireless is actively scanning.
network disconnected
Instead lets try to use a simple static icon that indicates wireless is active and working. (something like this, my icons are not to be trusted…)
wireless actively searching
In addition to the icon, it might be good to display some kind of message in the applet menu stating “Scanning for New Networks”
Ideas? Leave them in the comments!
Bryan,
I like the icon change but also think I’d like the ability to tell NM some information to make it more efficient. i.e. if I’m at home I’m always going to connect to my AP and so I don’t really want it to scan…
I know that it will auto connect to the known network but what often happens is that it doesn’t realize I’m at home yet, and I obviously know I’m there, so I feel the need to “tell it”, because I’m naturally impatient and don’t want to wait 30-60 seconds for it to realize my AP’s there.
I’m not sure how to solve that, or how it would change from a UI perspective, but I think if I had the option to do something dreaded like; right-click on NM and get a history list of access points, then I could just tell it straight away which to authenticate to, then I’d feel like both it and I were making the best use of our time together.
I wouldn’t be offended by a slightly pulsating orb at the top of the radio tower… in fact I think it would be more discoverable – subtle animation will suggest activity, while the icon itself will represent a scan of sorts.
This makes great sense, Bryan. My primary issue with NetworkManager (which generally works well for me) so far is that there is no visual difference between “I’m looking for networks, give me a minute”, and “I’m done looking for networks, there are none”.
Nice work.
I think the icon also needs to signify its still not connected to a network, still keep the red X on the bottom right. I think having the computer there with the radio waves slightly pulsating to signify activity would work perfectly there.
+1 to what you are thinking; feedback is definitely a key to the few things that ails NM.
One feature I use is the status bubble that appears when the mouse arrow hovers over nm-applet. It is always refreshing the signal strength and seems faster or to show more subtlety than the stacked bars. I use it when I am trying to find the best place to sit or position to face for maxium signal strength. I can hover the mouse and watch the % update in real time as I move the laptop around for a better signal.
That hovering dialog would be a good place to display more information:
“Scanning for networks”
“Found previous network ‘Foo’, attaching …”
“Scanning for networks with >20% strength”
Again, from my experience, this hovering dialog is faster at refreshing than the fully opened nm-applet, so it is more useful for getting up-to-date information from the NetworkManager daemon.
Sounds like a great idea. In fact, I’ve been bothered a long time now with not being able to tell, just by looking at an icon, if my wireless is on or off.
To save battery, I turn my wireless on/off depending on where I am, and right now, I have to open a terminal and type “iwconfig” just to see if the radio is on. A scanning button would at least let me know about my nic’s status.
Would it be possible for the network-manager applet to update the list of available networks one network at a time while network-manager is still scanning? Populating the list as networks are discovered would give the impression that something is happening.
I think the ‘searching’ icon should be consistent with other search metaphors within the desktop. It could use something like the first icon, but instead of a red X, have a magnifying glass that circles around the area.
Jay: NM is naturally going to scan for networks whenever it wakes up, however I can understand what you’re saying. You know where you are, it should just find it fast. I bet there are some tricks that could be done to make the scan find your APs faster. For instance if NM told the wireless card to search the channels / essids you connect to most first instead of going in numerical order you might get some speed up in finding your networks again.
Jon: You’re right! If the animation was subtle enough it might make sense, especially combined with what other are talking about using the [x] with the wireless icon to show that wireless is on but hasn’t found anything and has stopped scanning.
Thanks Steven! It’s one of my major complaints as well.
Karsten: good point about the tooltips as well!
anon: The applet list is supposed to update as NM finds new networks. This is often a problem with drivers when you get a list populated at once instead of incrementally.
Steven: Give that icon a try! Your work could only be better than mine
How about replacing the red “not found” overlay on the two-screen icon with another, static, overlay? A magnifying glass might work as “searching”, although it usually means “search” (as an imperative); I think a “reloading” symbol (probably the usual cycle of arrows) would work best, either static or animated. Personally, I’d have no problem with animation, particularly if it’s only a few-pixel overlay moving.
While we’re at it: please merge the left click menu and the right click menu. It’s very confusing since the “master switches” are in the right click menu and the network list is in the left click menu. Furthermore, to enable/disable a network the right click menu is used, and to enable a VPN connection the left click menu has to be used.
Keep up the good work; and please improve the menu interface (mumble something about beers
+1 user definitley needs to be informed when NM is scanning
NetworkManager is just great!
Matteo
Could we have some kind of spinning icon next to the “Scanning for new networks” to attract some attention as well maybe? Noticing that there’s work in progress is imho always a bit easier if there’s some motion….
Definitely makes sense. I like your icons actually. The lack of feedback in the usage scenario you present, has made me angry a few times, especially since it liked to fail on connecting so much. Visual indicator of the wireless card scanning would be much appreciated.
Nice icon indeed. I would basically keep the normal icon and add this one on top or next to it.
I see myself scanning with my eyes through the taskbar for the NM icon I am used to, and if my eyes don’t find it, that would probably make me re-scan the icons again.
So just add this nice image to the existing one somehow ™? Just my opinion. What do others think?
Peter
I totally want this “scanning for networks” icon.
Also, could we clarify what the icons next to the signal-strength bars mean? I have absolutely no idea what they mean, other than the “locked” icon which probably means “you cannot use this network”.
I also like the idea of some Wireless networks being present all the time, even if they are not there. Perhaps a “pinning” list like new Tomboy (http://www.gnome.org/projects/tomboy/images/applet-small.png) could help to display always your more often used networks, and you could force the connection to one of them before scanning is finished.