unity-design team mailing list archive

[Сергей <shnatsel@xxxxxxxxx>]

With GNOME-Shell coming, arises problem of managing small windows
which you need to always have here at hand. The greatest problem are
chat windows. Yes, replying from the notification is good, but what if
you need to copy a link from Firefox, then return to a chat window and
paste it? Switch to the overview, look for that window, choose it...
these are three simple steps, but they take time, and when you need to
repeat them all the time, it's really irritating. Chat windows used to
be one click away. Some ideas on solving this:
* Give every such app a tray icon. This doesn't eliminate or unify the
notification area, and it means that the icons should again open main
window on left click. Requires reverting changes from Lucid, but
probably will work.
* People applet? (A nice mockup:
http://sites.google.com/site/drewkerr/gimmie-corners.png) But, even if
you make it one-click, it would either not show who is who either
clutter the interface a lot. Chats are usually placed inside one
window in tabs, so this seems redundant. And we have calculator etc.,
so this does not solve the problem.
* Another hot corner, showing a "widget layer" with chats etc.?
Doesn't make you perform less actions, but animation is faster and
it's easier to pick the right window.
* Such windows can form another sidebar on the right, which will be
brought up on throwing cursor beyond the right edge of the screen.
Such sidebar could replace the application tray, it's more visual and
easily acessible, and can hold calculator, transmission, rhythmbox and
anything you want be at hand, but not clutter your workspace. Isn't it
the superior metaphor you are looking for?

Yours faithfully
Sergey Davidoff