Re: [Ayatana] Unity: An interactive Mock up of GUI ideas

[Sohail Mirza <mirzmaster@xxxxxxxxx>]

Michael,

I have to start by giving the caveat that I'm neither a UNR user, nor an Ubuntu dev, so if my opinions seem uninformed... that's because they are.  :)

Your OS X-like dashboard concept for the calculator is interesting, but as an occasional Mac user, I always disliked the fact that the calculator was constrained to the dashboard.  My most frequent use-case for calculator use is when using numbers from a spreadsheet in another window.  Graying out the background just makes it more difficult read the numbers from the background app without giving it focus.  Also, would one be able to alt-tab to the calculator app under your proposed model?

On the topic of an HTML/CSS-based desktop... are you proposing simply an HTML/CSS UI layer, or a browser-based OS?  The latter has been floated before [1].  If you think about it, this is almost precisely what Google intends for Chrome OS.  The browser is essentially the OS, and all the apps are web applications.  Google's philosophy is that there is no "full" mode required; browser-based web technologies are getting sophisticated enough that the benefits of a traditional native application model can hardly differentiate itself any longer.

Eventually UNR may have to compete with Chrome OS, and we'll need to be able to justify the desktop application approach against an increasingly more sophisticated browser-based experience, or evolve to do something similar.

That said, an HTML/CSS/JS UI layer would be nice.  Actually, Mozilla's XUL [2] similarly tries to capitalize on the well established web development knowledge-base.

Thanks,

Sohail Mirza

References:

[1] - http://live.gnome.org/ScratchPad/XUL
[2] - https://developer.mozilla.org/En/XUL

On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 12:43 PM, Michael Jonker <citizen.jonker@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

A tricky one!

I have the beginning of an idea for this in a sketch I posted one thread down. It could lie on the desktop wall, the same as the other 'background apps' are. When it gets the focus it renders above everything else. Clicking anywhere outside of the calculator minimises it back to the wall. When it is active, everything else is slightly greyed out.

There are loads of other issues to think about. The big one is how to make it work in portrait mode and what is the transition between portrait/ landscape.

There is also a lot of potential for radical ideas (I am not a programmer, so talk is easy :D )

How about if the whole GUI was rendered through HTML5 and CSS? This has potential for an almost 'instant on' GUI after network and web services have loaded. The rest of the system resources could start up in the background, giving priority to user web activity. A  red indicator light somewhere on the screen could go green and fade away to let the user know that all services are now available. This simplifies the current approach of having to choose between 'quick' or 'full' mode at start-up. I think that starting in quick mode will quickly be followed by a user desire to be in full mode. Having to restart then will be an annoyance.

On Mon, 2010-09-13 at 11:38 -0400, Sohail Mirza wrote:

Fantastic mockup Michael.  :)  I can only echo the kudos being given by the others.

One question:  In this scenario of "expose mode, maximized window, and nothing else", how will smaller windowed applicatoins like the Calculator be handled?  In Meerkat I notice that the Calculator cannot even be maximized, and no doubt it would look rather strange when maximized.

Thanks and keep the ideas coming!

Sohail Mirza

On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 5:20 AM, Michael Jonker <citizen.jonker@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I have put up an interactive mock up of some of the ways I feel Unity
can evolve here:

http://www.reviveyourpc.ie/unity/welcome.html

Give each screen a bit of time to cache - it is just linked html.

The key features are:

      * Fully navigable by mousepad tap (therefore screen touch)
      * Desktop is utilised productively
      * Only two modes - 1)Application open  2)System GUI root and
        quickaccess exposed.
      * Apps get maximum real estate

For the mock up - in application mode - switching is done by clicking on
the Ubuntu logo @ top left. This could be a mouse gesture or hover-over
in reality. On touch it could be a shake of the device optional to
touching the logo.

If anybody wants to tinker, I have put the Gimp file for the screens here:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1306731/Unity.xcf

Michael

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