[Ayatana] Unity feedback & suggestions

I've been a little out of the loop as I've been travelling for the past 6 month but when I read unity was to be shipped with ubuntu desktop I wanted to give it a whirl on the netbook/laptop I have with me. My experience so far has been a positive one, I like the idea and think there is a lot of potential here. It feels like a modern & forward thinking approach to a desktop and I'm very excited to see where it will go. I've found a couple of gripes with it (mostly with basic file manger tasks) and come up with a couple of suggestions: (these may already be resolved as I'm using packaged unity on 10.10).

The first thing that hit me was why is the ubuntu button so small compared with launcher buttons? As it's now the most important button on my dekstop it seems a little understated. How would it look if the launcher bar took up all the vertical space, and the first square button was a nice fancy ubuntu button that didn't ever move (even if the launcher bar scrolls)?

I can't seem to find a keyboard-shortcut to open the unity shell.

Unity Shell

I'm using a 1.3ghz netbook/laptop and I've found opening the unity shell quite laggy, once I start typing in the search box it gets worse. Opening the shell will be done so many times every day so it really should be instant. Maybe it could be pre-loaded in the background and made visible when it's opened?

When you click on the ubuntu button you get the main unity shell. Search is of course the main action here but those large icons underneath (Internet, Office, Games etc) are for me at least, wasted space. I always know what application/file I'm looking for and searching is now the fastest way for me to get to it so I have no need to have those big icons (although my parents would most likely use them). Could you offer users a way to utilise/customise this space? Personally I'd like to see my gmail inbox summary, and weekly agenda from my calendar. Perhaps even gwibber integration so I can get an overview of my social-networking sites?

I don't know if unity is planning/working on phasing nautilus out of ubuntu but that's the impression I get. I think it would be great if unity had the functionality of nautilus/dolphin but at the moment it doesn't have some very basic & critical features. This has probably been my biggest issue with unity. I found myself using unity shell to find my documents but then having to load nautilus up as unity didn't have the features i needed to work with them. When my less computer savvy friends/family click 'Files and Folders' and see a screen full of their documents, photos & videos, they will expect to be able to accomplish basic tasks (copy, paste, rename, order by, see full filenames, open files with alternative applications) there and then as they are accustomed to. Unity shell feels like it's half way to being a file-manager but doesn't quite get there, switching to nautlis to perform basic tasks feels clunky.

I suggest removing rubbish bin icon from the launcher, or at very least give the user to option to. I rarely use it (usually once every 6 months when I remember to empty it to free some space).

I dont think any of the 3 icons at the bottom (Files & Folders, Application & Rubbish bin) are essential. It would be nice to consolidate their functionality in to the single unity-shell.

I think separators in the unity launcher would be a good idea. For example users could choose their favourite apps to sit at the top/bottom (where they don't scroll) so they could quickly access them, alternatively open applications could always sit at the top.

Navigating windows, applications & workspaces

I often like to check up on a window, if I'm downloading something etc. In the past I'd click the applications window icon on the panel, see that window, then click again to minimize and I'm back to where I was at the start. There doesn't seem to be a solution for this in unity at the moment. So many times I've clicked on a window, decided no action required, clicked again expecting to go back but instead the single window goes in to unity's window select mode. Could the second click not realise i've not interacted with the window and take me back to where I was? It's a pain having to click the icon you want to check up on, then find the icon you where working on and click that one.

In the launcher panel, when hovering over application icons that are open, under the title could it display mini thumbnails or the open windows? Clicking on the thumbnail could then take you to that window. I think this would be an intuitive way to quickly navigate on unity.

Workspace switching - I'm a web developer and tend to use my 4 workspaces in the same layout every day, top left is always browsing, top right developing, bottom left databasing, bottom right for monitoring servers. I use the workspace switching shortcuts all the time (crl+alt+arrow and crl+alt+shift+arrow to take current window with me). I used to love the gnome compiz workspace switcher animations, sliding from workspace to workspace felt very natural. On unity it instantly switches workspace which isn't as nice a user experience, can I have my sliding animations back? :)

Double clicking on the window title usually maximises and then restores a window. This works on unity unless the window is maximised and then it doesn't do anything. When you double click on the file menu bar to the right of the options could it restore a window? It would be more consistent this way.

ALT+TAB seems quite dated now in unity. Not the idea - just the way it works. I suggest making it display thumbnails of all the windows (same effect as when you click an application icon in the launcher panel when there are multiple windows), continuing to alt+tab or using the arrow keys you could select the window you want?

Window titles seem to have gone - I didn't really mind this until I came to a situation where I had two openoffice spreadsheets open and couldn't see which one was saved and which wasn't. Are they gone for good?!

The icons at the top right (battery indicator, wifi, sound etc) are very fiddly to use. I've watched someone attempt to turn the volume down on my laptop failing multiple times as when they move their mouse to grab the range-slider it moves them on to the chat/gwibber or date drop-down. It really should be a little more forgiving!