unity-design team mailing list archive

[John Lea <john.lea@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think there are two different interactions we can implement here, one 
that is mostly additional functionality and a second that needs further 
thought and visual design treatment.

---------------------------------------
1)  Find all apps that can open a specific file type.

In this interaction, when a user starts dragging a file (or files) the 
'App Lens' is one of the Launcher icons that highlighted indicating it 
is a valid drop receptacle.  Dragging the file over the app lens 
launcher icon reveals the app lens showing only the applications which 
can open the specific file type(s).

Use Case 1 - Continued drag and drop

The user then continues dragging the file and drops it on a application 
icon in the app lens.  The action closes the app lens and opens the file 
in the selected application (installing the application first if 
necessary).

Use Case 2 - Drop then select

The user drops the file on the app lens icon. They then click on the 
application in the app lens they want to use to open the file.  The 
action closes the app lens and opens the file in the selected 
application (installing the application first if necessary).

Use Case 3 - Abandon action and exit

If the user decides to abandon the action they can either:
a) drag the file back on to the launcher, this closes the app lens
b) drag the file outside of the dash area (only applies to the desktop dash)
c) drop the file in any area of the dash that is not a application icon

Considerations:
a) In the use cases described above, the app lens should display two 
category headers.  These should be "Installed Apps that can open .jpg 
files" and "Apps Available for Download that can open .jpg files".  Both 
of these categories should be expanded by default.
b) For use case 1 (continued drag and drop) dragging the file to the 
bottom or top of the app lens should initiate a auto-scroll behavior


---------------------------------------
2)  Display the currently installed default app that can open the 
specific file type in the Launcher (if it is not there already).

While I like the interaction because it increases the vocabulary of drag 
and drop launcher behavior, it is essentially a *slower* way of 
performing exactly the same action as double clicking or tapping on the 
file.  Re. placement, I like Jason's idea of positioning the icon at the 
top of the Launcher since is is both transient and a common action.

This interaction need some more thought and/or prototyping and perhaps 
some careful visual treatment to avoid confusing the user.  If it not 
difficult to add this behavior I would suggest adding it and switching 
it off by default.  When Charline does her next round of user testing we 
can throw it into the tests.  This is a item that really needs to be 
prototyped to see if it can work.

cheers,
John




On 20/02/11 18:51, Jason Smith wrote:
> Placing at the bottom will hold challenges for a folded situation,
> though placing at the top will slide things that would otherwise be
> stationary. However, since we are known to be in a situation where no
> icon can possibly resolve the drop (with the exclusion of the trash),
> perhaps always placing at the top (and sliding existing icons down) is
> not evil?
>
> On Sun, 2011-02-20 at 15:43 +0000, Mark Shuttleworth wrote:
> > Great suggestions all! How about this:
> >
> >   - if no app on the launcher can handle this type, and there is a
> > default launcher, we put it at the bottom (where it would launch) and
> > wiggle it to call attention to it
> >
> >   - we also allow drag to the apps place, which would open (on hover)
> > with the top section showing all known apps which could handle that type
> >
> > Mark


--
John Lea | User Experience Architect
Canonicalwww.canonical.com  | Ubuntuwww.ubuntu.com
27th Floor, 21-24 Millbank Tower, London, SW1P 4QP
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7630 2415 | Email:john.lea@xxxxxxxxxxxxx