unity-design team mailing list archive

[Robin Anderson <afisynte@xxxxxxxxx>]

I really should be going to bed but this is some interesting stuff.

I thought of maybe bringing up adding workspaces on-the-fly but dropped it
when I thought of a person that had no experience with multiple workspaces
say open an application set to create a new workspace and being
annoyed/angered/confused by all of the windows they just had now being gone,
unless something very bright, clear, bouncing or perhaps all of those was
directing them to how to get back to where they were, at least the first (or
first few, unless they clicked a "go away" thing) times they encountered the
'feature'. I'm not sure how to idiot/'masses'-proof such a thing. I have a
lot of experience with something happening and it confusing users with my
parents and basically everything new to them on a computer. Even the
bouncing icons on Mac OS X can get left alone go on for days with some
people.

Sure by default that top bar isn't in use but I haven't gotten around to
setting up and learning hotkeys for all of my most used applications so that
top bar is basically entirely filled with little shortcut icons. (I would
love to have a place for a bunch of little launch application buttons not in
a menu or in one of those Gnome drawer applets, almost like a Mac OS X dock,
but that fits in with the default Ubuntu panel setup and if the tabs are
chosen, fits in with that too.)

With Chrome / Chromium OS coming out the tab-everything push is going to
mostly be on netbooks but hey, that might be The Future so if people are
into that Ubuntu might be able to get a jump on it. I definitely see a trend
towards an iPhone-OS-izing of just about everything with an interface so it
might just be a matter of time before even stuff for desktops is designed in
such a way. The Hulu Desktop program already sort of does this, although it
might be just out of wanting a user to maximize it and treat it like a home
media center application (I know more advanced users would actually
integrate it into their Home Media system, but I'm thinking of a joe average
user). Maybe the netbook/smartphone stuff like tabs could be 'trialed' on
Ubuntu Netbook Edition then any and all features that people are into could
be looked at for inclusion in Ubuntu Desktop.

On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 2:14 AM, Robin Anderson <afisynte@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Oops, sorry I didn't see this thread until after I hit "send". Please
> consider my most recent email in the other thread to be part of this one.
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 1:55 AM, Conscious User <conscioususer@xxxxxxx>wrote:
>
>>
>> > While I like the basic concept, there are going to be severe limits.
>> > First off, what about vertical desktops? I have a 2x 2 setup, and its
>> > worked wonders for me for keeping organized. I personally can't stand
>> > the stick em all in the line organization.
>>
>> Can you please elaborate more on how vertical setups help your
>> organization? I use a 2x2 setup too, but mainly for keyboard
>> navigation purposes, something that would not be forbidden by
>> the tab concept.
>>
>> > Secondly, do we want to implement adding workspaces on the fly?
>>
>> I do. :) One of the things that always bothered me about workspaces
>> is how static they are and how they exist regardless if you are
>> using them or not. It's a waste of resources and represents an idle
>> empty thing which no purpose, which makes the user experience feel
>> less tidy.
>>
>> > Third, I think the basic functionality here, while certainly not bad,
>> > will be very neatly coded by Google Chrome OS and in Gnome-Shell, to
>> > the point of why bother starting from scratch.
>>
>> Oh, I certainly support the idea of using as much as existing code
>> as possible, but on the stage of brainstorming I avoid being
>> constrained by that. :)
>>
>>
>>
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>