unity-design team mailing list archive

[Frederik Nnaji <frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 17:50, Jan-Christoph Borchardt <
inquata@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I’m sorry, but then why all the discussion? I brought up KDE / Dolphin
> in my second post.
>

sorry, that was about 20h and like 30 mails ago in this thread alone :D
birdseye perspective is not so easy anymore..

Conscious:
good idea with indicating dragabilty ;)

Jan-Christoph:
yeah, iPhone is a good example for what i'm about to suggest:

to follow the thought of creating an intuitive, consistent and thereby
easily depth-discoverable interface, we need to think dumb sometimes.
"smart" is then the product of intuitive thinking, not of complicated
pirouettes of mind.

how do i know that what i am touching can be moved?
how do i know that i'm selecting it, not activating or focusing it
(zoom/scale/spacial highlighting)?
altogether:
how do i know what i can do with an object, without previously knowing the
object?

we use little indications overlayed with the respective representation of
the object, be it a symbol or the object itself.

such indications or indicators can be:
a) mouse cursor shape
*hand (open in a drag and drop zone, clutching if something is being
held/dragged)
*finger (to indicate that i'm about to add to selection upon click)
*arrow (color: default/none for "go, open, run", blue for "info layer upon
click"...)
*bubble (for indicating the ability of immediate textual communication)
*text cursor (type without letting any mouse pointer get in the way of your
focus)
*[...] u name it!

b) status bar information
c) tooltips aka mouse-over info
d) pointer-focus-oriented morphing of symbols/icons/objects
e) [...] u name it!

just brainstorming.
i think i have always been quite good at thinking dumb ;)