[Ayatana] Unity Dash Ideas

[Anthony Scire <aaaantoine@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello, Ayatana.

I am here, once again, with some ideas for improving the dash.  I'm
almost certain none of them are new ideas, but they are my chief
complaints, and I may as well compile them together.

1. Improvement for Most Frequently Used
Currently this lists applications that are pinned to your launcher. In
my case, 4 of the 6 visible are already pinned to my Launcher. Why waste
space on this?

My suggestion: This area should be reserved for applications that are
*not* already on the launcher (unless you type in search keywords;
that's another story).  See also Bug #752908:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+bug/752908

2. Dash Scrollbar Nuance
When looking at any default lens, where there are three rows of icons
(Most Frequently Used / Installed / Available for Download, or Recent /
Downloads / Favorite Folders), there is a tiny amount of scrolling.
Scrolling doesn't even reveal much of anything.

My suggestion: Eliminate scrolling in this case for the sake of polish.

3. Shortcuts Dash Needs Some Love
Eight simple, massive icons are there now: Media Apps, Internet Apps,
More Apps, Find Files. Then beneath that, your default Browser, Photo
app, Email app, and Media Player.

I'm not sure what to do here. For starters I skip straight over Media &
Internet apps and go for More Apps. Meanwhile, this and the Find Files
lens are both duplicated on the Launcher itself. Which one should I get
used to clicking? Remember when the Ubuntu devs complained that there
were three different ways to shutdown Ubuntu from the GUI?

4. Easier Category Access
If you're accessing your programs via mouse, it's difficult to look up a
specific category of applications. It takes 3 clicks to get to a list of
all applications. It takes four to five clicks to get a list of all
applications in a specific category. In contrast, the old Gnome 2
behavior allowed you to click the Applications menu and then mouse-over
the rest of the way to the program you want. KDE 4's menu even allows
you to mouse-over most of the way to the application you're looking for.
Gnome 3 *should* allow mouse-over to get to the applications view, but
to be fair, you don't have to click to get to the Activities view in
Gnome 3.

My suggestion: once you navigate your way into the Applications lens,
have a vertical list of all application categories on the left side,
with an arrow indicating which category you're currently looking at.
Allow clicking or delayed mouse-over to switch categories. Get rid of
the drop-down in the search box.

5. Quick Access to Software Center
Assuming a user -- deliberately or accidentally -- removes the pinned
Software Center launcher, how does one know where to download new
software?  The integration so far into the Dash is a step in the right
direction, but I'd like to add just one tiny tweak.

My suggestion: In the Applications lens, add a general link to the
Software Center in the Available for Download section.

A mockup for 1, 2, 4, and 5 can be found at the URL below:
http://i.imgur.com/SdLMT.jpg