unity-design team mailing list archive

[Ryan Gauger <rtgkid@xxxxxxxxx>]

OS X has a full screen app finder, Launchpad (starting with Lion). Windows has a full-screen list of app tiles (starting with Windows 8), but I think the GNOME 2 menus are the easiest to navigate though, IMO. I think Apple is doing something good by allowing the user to create the categories (folders) themselves, giving the user more options to work with. Unity doesn't even give categories an option for users. It does have lenses and filters, but not categories. Most users want their computers to be easy, simple, and quick to use, but Unity (dash specifically) doesn't allow quick use because users have to go searching through both apps and system tools in all apps in dash. Just my two cents.

---Ryan

On Jun 16, 2012, at 8:58 PM, "pjssilva@xxxxxxxxx" <pjssilva@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I have never used OS X, so I can not comment about it.
> 
> I have always thought that it was easier to navigate the application
> menu from the Gnome 2
> when compared to windows messy starting menu where applications were
> everywhere and could easily grow to an unusable state. So I don't
> think the messy windows menu is a good point to start.
> 
> Phone/desktop OS are not the best models for a desktop OS. For
> example, windows is receiving a very harsh criticism for trying to
> create a weird hybrid. Moreover I also use an Android phone. My phone
> uses Go Launcher because it has nice folders that I can use to
> categorize my applications. It is much faster to see all the
> categories in one screen and from there open the right folder than to
> move around many pages of apps. People that I know that use iOS also
> and that have many apps also tend to categorize them in different
> pages for different categories. So they have the games page(s), the
> media page, the Internet page, etc. The same happen with the Android
> users I know that don't use a launcher with good folder support.
> Finally good folder support is one of the major features in Android
> 4.0 default launcher. Hence Android and iOS do have support for
> categorization, they only don't have default categories. The user is
> considered responsible for the categorization.
> 
> What Linux system do (up to now, as Gnome is moving away from it) is
> to give the user some predefined categories. I think this is good, it
> is a starting point which is naturally useful as a desktop usually
> have many more applications installed than in a phone.
> 
> Now, I would really like to hear the *reasoning* against having
> default categories. Why it is preferable to let the burden to the user
> do all the job for each new applications he/she installs (and all the
> installed applications that come by default). Sure, it is impossible
> to find a good categorization that fits everyone. But we can find a
> reasonable initial one. The current one is good enough for me.
> 
> Another nice question is what to do with shared computers. User A
> installed application X and categorized it in his W category. What
> happens to user B? He might not have W category. He might think that
> the best category is Z not W?
> 
> best,
> 
> Paulo
> 
> 2012/6/16 Connor Carney <ccarney@xxxxxxxxx>:
>> A look at other operating systems suggests that categorization is not
>> necessary: out of all of the current-generation UIs, the only one that
>> offers prominent categorization of installed applications is KDE.
>> 
>> Mac OS has never categorized applications.  Current versions of OS X provide
>> a dock, an alphabetical list and a search box.
>> In Windows, each installed application creates it's own group in the start
>> menu, so it's effectively just a list of applications in the order that they
>> were installed.  Windows 7 additionally provides a list of recent apps, a
>> dock, and a search box.  No meaningful categories in sight except perhaps
>> "System Tools".
>> GNOME shell and Unity support searching by category, but don't provide a
>> categorized list.
>> Android provides a home screen, an alphabetical list, and a search box.
>> iOS provides a home screen, a search box, and Siri.
>> 
>> 
>> The users of those systems generally seem to be able to find their installed
>> applications without categories.
>> 
>> Part of what complicates things in Unity, though, is the proliferation of
>> non-application system features in the applications list.  For example, the
>> first row in my list of installed applications consists of Additional
>> Drivers, Adobe Air Application Installer, Advanced Settings, AisleRiot
>> Solitaire, Appearance, Archive Manager, Backup, Banshee, Bluetooth,
>> Brightness and Lock.  Only two of those (AisleRiot and Banshee) are
>> "Applications" from the end-user perspective.
>> 
>> (side note: WTH is "Brightness and Lock" a combined item?)
>> 
>> Perhaps if we filtered out things like system tools (use control center) and
>> file viewers (just open the file) in the default list, category browsing
>> would be less of an issue for non-searchers.
>> 
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Paulo José da Silva e Silva
> Professor Associado, Dep. de Ciência da Computação
> (Associate Professor, Computer Science Dept.)
> Universidade de São Paulo - Brazil
> 
> e-mail: pjssilva@xxxxxxxxxx         Web: http://www.ime.usp.br/~pjssilva
> 
> -- 
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