Sohail, I am not a developer or programmer either, I am an architect by profession. My focus is purely on design, functionality and experience. I am coming very strongly from a design point of view and this is only a mock up done quickly over the weekend while I was supposed to be helping my wife tile the bathroom! What has motivated me is the brilliant progress which Unity has bravely initiated. There has been criticism levelled at Unity regarding a remit of issues, some of which I agree with - but what is important is that it wants to be a clean, intuitive, accessible interface for small format screens. Is it there yet - No. I am no stranger to OS interfaces and it took me a long time to find my way to some of the most basic functionality. UNE needs to be super simple and intuative, yet give you ALL the functionality and workflow you can get out of a desktop. I am wary that the development path is naturally weighted by the community who want to see the functionality they expect to be the de-facto mode. This is (by virtue of much feedback at OMG Ubuntu, thanks Joey for posting) leaning towards heavy multitasking and quick switching - the typical behaviour of people engaged in development. This is critically important and must work. What is equally important is the billions of users who will only engage with the system if it is obvious from the first glance how everything works and is accessed. This needs to just work and look effortless - like it was never designed, as natural as using a knife and fork or chopsticks or eating with a spoon. We need to consider the large percentage of these users who will be partially mobile (right click is a bonus function, not a core), partially sighted (text based pop out menus is a bonus, not a core), illiterate (the graphics must be intuative, text navigation is a bonus, not a core). It needs to work on everything from a $35 tablet to an ASUS Eee Pad EP121 (autohiding dock and graphic effects is a bonus, not a core) To address your points directly: 1: Having windowed apps, such as the calculator accessible in tandem with other apps will be NB. Greying out the background is only intended for getting back to a pure wall state by clicking if windowed (not maximised) apps are open. It informs the user that their desktop is not focussed, thus inactive. In your example, the calculator will have to be open with the spreadsheet live below it - pretty much like it works on the standard desktop Ubuntu. Alt - Tab should toggle which one is on top. This could be a nice bit of functionality - any app can have 3 states a)minimised to desktop wall b)focussed and in front c)focussed and behind. Alt - Tab could toggle the display order of focussed apps. Setting a windowed app to 'Always on Top' should set you up for the workflow you are describing. (see attached screenshots) From the desktop wall - maybe Cntrl - click could bring up multiple selections as windowed apps. This whole issue could be tricky and needs a lot of thought to make it work simply without compromising any existing functionalty. 2: The idea of a cloud based, browser OS is not something I support. This is purely because the freedom FOSS guarantees becomes critically eroded in this model. I am merely speculating that this type of UI layer, stored locally, could be lighter, more flexible and easier to develop for many more community members. Michael On Tue, 2010-09-14 at 09:54 -0400, Sohail Mirza wrote: > 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 > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ayatana > > Post to : ayatana@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ayatana > > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp > > > > > > > > > > -- > > sfm > > > > > > -- > sfm
Attachment:
calc.png
Description: PNG image
Attachment:
calc2.png
Description: PNG image
Attachment:
calc3.png
Description: PNG image
