unity-design team mailing list archive

[Mohamed Ikbel Boulabiar <boulabiar@xxxxxxxxx>]

Well, I think you are speaking about the problem of mapping.

Let's write an very simplified model for the interaction architecture to
better understand things.

The usual old menu interaction mode:
(mouse) --> (pointer) --> ((menu)app)
(keyboard shortcuts) -------^

HUD:
(keyboard entry) <-search-> (menu)--(app)

^-- And please note that the menu here is taken outside the application.
The mapping made in HUD is just search and which can be enhanced itself to
give results even when a character of two of the menu command is misspelled.

While we have the menu outside the control of the application, we have the
ability to imagine 2 things:
1. Other ways to do the mapping
2. Other ways of visualizing the list of commands.

1.In the current stage, HUD is doing a 1-1 mapping keeping the same name,
but it will be possible that someone hack HUD in the future to route a list
of possible command entries to a specific command, in the example you've
cited typing ("formula", "equation", ..) will activate your
"INSERT>OBJECT>FORMULA" n-1, and similar mappings for each application. etc.
Other mapping can be a specific gesture or voice...

2. The menu items of LibreOffice can be rearranged in a new visualization
made by HUD, and which can be specific to each application too. For example
rearranging them in ribbon interface (<it's just an example, not to be
implemented...) or in any other way.

And all these changes can be made without touching LibreOffice code.

So, anything can be possible to make in the future and we have now an
unlimited freedom.
What is difficult, is to discover new interaction/visualization mappings
and demonstrate that some are better than others for users.


i


On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 10:48 PM, supernova <supernova.it@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Dear Mailing List, I'm testing HUD with libreoffice.
>
> I think that this app has a limit: it speeds up the work of a person
> that previously has known menus as they are now.
> Imagine a child that is born a few ours ago. In 5 years he will use
> Ubuntu of course. He will have to insert Schroedinger equation in a
> paper; so he will push the ALT key and write "equation". HUD now (not
> in five years) will answer  TOOLS>LANGUAGE>HYPHENATION, instead of
> INSERT>OBJECT>FORMULA...
>
> If he didn't use a standard menù, he will be in trouble. Imagine the
> same child at 8 yo, using Anjuta...
>
> Where am I wrong, if I am?
>
> Supernova
>
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