hypothesis
Show one new/updated annotation icon isn't very visible
Steps to reproduce
- Open an annotated webpage
- Have another user annotate the page while the page is open in your browser
- An icon appears, indicating "Show one new/updated annotation", but it is really not very visible: you can only see it by opening the annotation panel, and then it is only a small icon
Expected behaviour
Probably the icon should appear on the right side of the page even if the annotation panel is currently closed, and it could appear with some kind of motion or jiggling animation to ensure the user notices it.
Additional details
Incidentally, I'm guessing the ideal thing would be not to have such an icon, but instead show the changes done by other users in real-time as they happen.
Incidentally, I'm guessing the ideal thing would be not to have such an icon, but instead show the changes done by other users in real-time as they happen.
We used to do this, but it turned out to be quite problematic if you were trying to read, reply or edit annotations while a lot of other users were doing the same, for example in a classroom context. If that happened content could move around in the sidebar or change in a distracting way.
That issue perhaps doesn't apply so much when the sidebar is closed, but having behavior be different depending on whether the sidebar is open or closed could be surprising in a different way.
Thanks for the explanations. Maybe this could be togglable? But in any case with the current behavior the icon seems too small and easily missable (to me and to a fellow user testing the system)
This was partly addressed in https://github.com/hypothesis/client/issues/6255. Also the sidebar is now open by default on pages where there is enough room, so you're more likely to see it.
We still don't have any kind of indicator about new updates that appear when the sidebar is closed.