unity-design team mailing list archive

[Edward Mountjoy <emountjoy@xxxxxxxxx>]

The rationale:
Unity's launcher is designed to act both as a launcher AND a window
switcher. The current implementation of the 'launcher' works well as a
launcher but requires much more thought from the user when it comes to
switching windows. This (for me at least) is Unity's biggest stumbling
block when it comes to multi-tasking.

The problem is that it is difficult for the user to, at a glance,
distinguish between running and favourite apps as they are often dispersed
amongst each other. It is not immediately clear which apps are
running. This means that when switching windows the user must first search
through the list of (many) apps to see which are running, then can think
which one was it that they wanted to switch to.

Although this might not seemed like much of a difference it requires a lot
more thought process from the user compared to if they were presented with
the running apps and favourite apps "separately". I find that usability is
greatly increased in Unity if i do not pin any apps to the launcher and
only use it for switching apps. Give it a go.

Proposed solution:
A solution could be to have dynamic ordering of applications on the
launcher starting with the most recently used application (similar to
Alt+Tab). At first this might feel a bit strange but it would make sense as
you would know exactly where to start looking.

ALL running apps should appear at the top of the launcher (but under the
dash button) in order of most recently used. Favourite apps should appear
beneath running apps. If a favourite app is opened it will move from its
favourite position to the running apps section. eg.

-------
Dash icon
-------
(Most recent running app 1)
(Most recent running app 2)
.
.
.
(Most recent running app j)
-------
(Favourite app 1)
.
.
.
.
(Favourite app k)
-------
Workspace switcher
Rubbish bin
-------