unity-design team mailing list archive

[Josh Strawbridge <holyknightjoshua@xxxxxxxxx>]

i don't use multiple monitors yet but it's unlikely that i'll get more than
2, 3 at most.  still, i think the suggestion made by GianZap sounds better
than what's i'm seeing in the video.
the video setup seemed to have 24 workspaces by default due to the number
of monitors. if someone told me they had 24 workspaces there's no way i
couldn't ask what they use them all for.
i know i wouldn't make good use of 8 workspaces even if i had 8 monitors. i
rarely make use of all 4 that i already have with just 1 monitor and only
having one monitor makes the 3 unseen workspaces more useful.

it should be able to go without saying that having extra monitors to make
use of the extra workspaces makes the extra workspaces more useful but each
additional monitor makes each additional workspace per monitor less useful.
to put it more simply, having more monitors makes you less likely to swap
to a different workspace instead of using the workspace on the other
monitors.

at some point the number of workspaces becomes impractical. that number
might be different for each person but i can't think of enough things a
person can actually do at one time to warrant 24 workspaces.
it also seems to me that the benefits of multiple monitors have less to do
with more workspaces (aside from a general +1 per monitor) and more to do
with the extra *visible* workspace/information that you don't get by simply
adding more workspaces.

like if i'm using mypaint/gimp/krita for a painting study and i'm using a
reference image i can still fullscreen mypaint/gimp/krita and just have the
reference on my other monitor so i don't have to work in a smaller space,
or if i'm working fullscreen on one monitor i can have my chats/etc open on
the other monitor and easily viewable,
or if i'm working in blender, it's easy to have multiple windows with
multiple frames each frame containing what part of the UI you choose for
it, you just arrange and split it however you want to make use of the extra
monitor space,
or if i need to look something up while i'm playing world of warcraft (yay
Wine) i don't end up blind to what's happening to my character.

if someone needs more workspaces the original suggestion still makes that
easily available to them without causing a huge surplus.
what's in the video seems very impractical and not simplified enough to be
as good of a user experience as what GianZap suggested.

-- 
Josh Strawbridge