It is way too easy to miss errors
Summary: Anna and Wex both zeroed in on this weakness quickly: errors being displayed in the upper-right, sometimes transiently, is very easy for a user to not see.
They strongly advocate showing the error in the context of the field that is throwing it, which seems right any time that that is known.
For more generic errors, we had a vigorous discussion, and I'm not entirely happy with any of the suggestions. (Anna prefers reserved status space in the top left, which makes sense on a large screen but not on a small one IMO.)
I am leaning towards:
- First, the StatusLine API should formalize the notion of Info vs Error. That API is currently behavior-oriented, which makes sense at the low level but not the high one: callers shouldn't be worrying about where or how long, but instead just about the semantics.
- Second, Errors shouldn't be displayed in the same place as Info. In particular, generic Errors should probably be a bit more in-your-face. I am leaning towards an actual overlay, docked at the top, right below the navbar if it is showing, or the very top if not.
