I'm glad you provided mockups and don't simply say you dislike something without providing alternatives.
I'm not too familiar with Unity as I haven't been testing it, but I have seen screenshots. So I can't really comment on the Default Desktop mockup you've made.
I feel your suggestion for the Application Menu uses all available screen real estate at the cost of running into the same common criticism of GNOME Shell.
People like seeing what apps are running at a glance. Also having to click something to open up the list of applications increases mouse clicks and (if you want to be pedantic saying it would work on hover), mouse movement when switching applications .
From: citizen.jonker@xxxxxxxxx
To: ayatana@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2010 18:20:37 +0100
Subject: [Ayatana] Unity interface - my Beta review and proposals
I have been Beta testing the new Unity UNE interface for the last few
days and am excited about its potential as a multiple format device
front for Ubuntu, especially touch devices. Praise apart, I am going to
jump straight into critique of the UI, which was filed as a bug report
here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/633073
The huge effort into juicing as much vertical real estate as possible is
notable. This should not be the only priority - all real estate on small
devices is crucial, thus the omnipresence of the Global Menu for me is a
problem. In desktop mode or browsing system menus - fine. When an app is
open and I am trying to be productive - never. There has been much
discussion about how to autohide the Global menu, but I feel this is not
the simplest solution.
My other opinion is that real estate should not override the issue of
accessibility. Access to apps and system functions should be through the
shortest route possible. There should be no duplicate routes which offer
access to similar but different usability. At present this is most
noticeable in the different approaches to where the Ubuntu button and
the Application Launcher global button takes you. They are almost the
same thing - but not quite.
The desktop -as far as real estate is concerned - is a barren wasteland.
The user can't use it for anything, it is just there taking up space
when you start your computer. Why not use this and present the whole
system map on one page? When an application does not have focus, the
user is always back on that page. It works on good website designs, it
works on smart phones, so why not do the same for small format devices?
To debate these issues, I have attached two wireframe sketches of how I
feel Unity can evolve.
Looking forward to everyone's thoughts,
Michael
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