unity-design team mailing list archive

[Henrik Peytz <henrik.peytz@xxxxxxxxx>]

Some of these ideas have already been proposed (mainly the ordering of the
dock-icons) but here goes...

Here is the mockup : http://fav.me/d3fkdc6

And here is a more fleshed out description and reasoning behind the proposed
changes:

Changelist:

Dock-changes: Launchers have background-colors signifying their
software-category (Online-apps, Games, Multimedia, Office/Production,
etc.).Workspace-switcher launcher and mounted media-launchers are moved to
the bottom of the dock. Lenses are removed. Instead, the right-click
functionality of the “applications”-lens and the “Files & Folders”-lens are
moved to become the right-click functionality of the Dash-button and the
Home-folder launcher respectively. Because:
- It will save precious launcher-space in the dock. The lenses take up 2
perfectly good launcherspaces that could be used for other things before the
amount of launchers make the dock “fold”.
- Coalescing the lenses into the already existing Dash- and
homefolder-button makes sense. In a sense, the Dash-button is the
Linux-equivalent of a “Start-button” in Windows, it doesn't make sense that
launcher-buttons in the dock open up the Dash-menu, especially not when they
are so far removed from each other and visually don't seem to be
particularly interrelated. The home-folder launcher is also close enough to
the corner/Dash that it warrants this kind of attention to a new user.
- Moving the Workspace-switcher to the bottom along with the mounted media
buttons will serve to tell these functions from the normal
application-launchers; they're apples and oranges which shouldn't be mixed
for sake of overview.
- Giving launchers a category-based background color will serve as basic
visual hint as to the functionality of the application launched. This is
less important for experienced users, but a nice aid for new users. Also, it
gives people one way (currently there is none) to group things in a sane way
without making the dock look like a double-rainbow.

Dash-changes: Right-clicking Dash will give users the Application menu,
currently accessed by right-clicking the “Applications”-lens. Covered above.
Dash needs a major overhaul, but is not covered in this particular list of
suggestions/mockup for Unity.

Global menu-changes: The Global menu will be removed and window-menus will
be restored (Classic Gnome-way if you will), except when a window is
maximized, in which case the global menu will work as it does currently even
on separate screens. The tray-icons have their own little bar in the
top-right corner, which resizes itself depending on the amount of indicators
up there, and overlaps the Global menu if a window is maximized.. Because:
- The point of the Global menu is to save vertical space on the screen, but
when a user need the vertical space, he'll naturally resize the window
bigger and, if that isn't enough, maximize the window. Point being: the
Global menu currently only serves a purpose when a window is maximized, so
lets keep that and let un-maximized windows keep their menus.
- Working with multi-window applications like GIMP and Cinelerra (for
instance) is a pain when every window uses the global-menu. It makes the
learning curve of such programs steeper as the user cannot relate the
menu-options of non-active windows to each other.
- Dual-/multi-screen setups would make more sense as the travel-time between
menu and application would be reduced.
- High-res monitors currently waste a lot of pixels drawing nothing but a
dull grey panel that is never used for anything, blocking the nice wallpaper
underneath, and (ironically) is taking up vertical space.
- Basically, the Global menu is a good idea that serves a purpose; but it is
not something that's supposed to be a rigid part of the desktop; it is
supposed to be a more covert way of saving vertical space when needed. If
there is enough space to run applications with a menu in a window, let them,
all is well; if not, maximize them and use the Global-menu-way of saving
vertical space. Call it “Maximode menu” instead :).

 Desktop-changes : Tear out the Empathy/Qwibber social combo and replace it
with optional applications/plugins which can be embedded in the desktop in a
widget-like fashion in the form of (for instance) a contact-list supporting
multiple protocols for chatting, irc'ing, voice-chat and
video-conferencing.. Because:
- Social applications need to be visible in order to be useful. The current
way tries to compromize between users who want these applications (they're
installed and have a menu), and users who don't (the installed applications
are not really visible and still need to be opened and accessed through the
MeMenu), accomplishing neither users goal.
- If the social-applications were embedded in the desktop in a widget like
fashion, then you could easily access them through the Super-D key-combo
(minimize/de-minimize) all windows, to gain an instant overview of all the
social-tools of your choice; yet not have to worry about these applications
overlapping other applications when you're not happening to be chatting.
- It would save system-resources for people who do not use these
applications.