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Re: [Ayatana] Alt-Tab and switching



On 4/12/2011 11:37 AM, Pippa Kyle wrote:
You shouldn't need to make out details in Win7 as the whole window is previewed on the screen behind the switcher.

On 12/04/11 17:18, Kevin Liao wrote:
Just my personal opinion, the thumbnails in Windows are too small to be useful. I think that the Mac one is better since it is easier for the user to make out icons rather than hunting for details on a tiny thumbnail. 
Cheers, 
Kevin Liao. 

On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 11:51 PM, Pippa Kyle <pippa.kyle@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello Ayatana guys!  Just wanted to get some opinions...

I'm looking into making improvements to task/application switching on the desktop with Alt-Tab.  There are slightly different approaches currently for Windows 7 and Mac.

Personally I like the Windows way, as the window preview in the background helps me find exactly what I'm looking for.  I can easily switch back and forth between 2 apps, and I can also see which window is part of which app.

I can see that the app-based approach in Mac isn't a bad thing, but without the window preview, I'm not sure how this approach would scale to smaller screens.

Any thoughts on this, and what would be good for Unity?

Regards,
Pippa


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I just started using Windows 7 at work (having been a long-time Ubuntu at home and Win XP at work user). I found Windows 7's way of previewing windows while holding alt and tapping tab very confusing--I had no visual cues of where I was "at" or how many times I needed to tap Tab to get where I was going, as the switcher was often covered by the window that I was previewing (this is probably a bug or, more likely, simply a poor implementation of what they were trying to achieve).

I find previews (even the outline-of-the-window-only previews) visually confusing, mostly because when I alt+tab, I want to use as little brain power on finding the new window as possible. Previews add visual noise that's rarely helpful to me and tends to ask me to devote brain power to figuring out what I'm being shown.

I much prefer the traditional alt+tab switcher (in both Windows and Gnome) which provides application icons and text, only because it's easier for me to identify icon shapes and colors quickly then confirm my choice with the window title, rather than to try to figure out whether the white window filled with rows of text that I'm looking at is a version of a spreadsheet or my inbox.

Unfortunately, the traditional switcher is rather plain jane appearance-wise. There's probably a better way to switch applications, something I haven't seen yet (I can't comment on the Mac implementation, having never used it). But I think focusing on making windows/icons immediately recognizable while minimizing visual noise is vital.

Jake T