Hi all,
I posted a three new/revised ideas to the Designer's Playground on the
wiki, and would like any feedback. Links to the same content are also in the body of this email.
First, I took a crack at visualizing the UI for setting up and saving Activities as defined by Milan Bouchet-Valat's summary of the GUIHackfest. In this version, I couldn't get around adding a button to start the "New Activity" saving process, but tried to leave the current Overlay unchanged in other ways. In this imagined UI, all dialogue for saving windows and workspaces to an Activity group takes place in the Sidebar, temporarily replacing the Apps and Recent Docs columns. It would be great if establishing activities could be mostly automated and require a minimum of mouse-clicks/text entry, but this was as streamlined a way as I could imagine.
Activity Mockup Pg 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26671354 N05/3443864980/sizes/o/in/photostream/
Activity Mockup Pg 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26671354 N05/3443865006/sizes/o/in/photostream/
Second, I linked to a two minute stop-motion video better showing some of my animation ideas for using wallpapers as an Overlay background. I started making the video weeks ago to clarify the animation ideas, so the Overlay UI in the video already looks a little dated. I didn't know Sander Dijkhuis was working on this, and I have no idea if some of the animations I show are possible in the Overlay, but I would like to help in any way I can.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_OYkpLpyew
Lastly, after some discussion in the IRC and getting a better idea of the Overlay's original design intentions, I wanted to try updating the earlier "Frame" task-list and window tiling submission -- which I now call the "Shelf". The "Shelf" concept leaves the main Overlay as the only way to launch apps or saved documents, and would use a single workspace Task-list Overlay instead of a traditional task-list bar. Minimized windows would shrink to a "Shelf", while non-minimized windows would remain in an Expose-like zone.
1) Hot-corners and window minimizing animations: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26671354 N05/3443594832/sizes/o/
2) Window tiling: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26671354 N05/3442783741/sizes/o/in/photostream/
3) "Shelf" Variation A: based on window thumbnails:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26671354 N05/3442783751/sizes/o/in/photostream/
4) "Shelf" Variation B: based on textual labels grouped by application:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26671354 N05/3443600296/sizes/o/in/photostream//
5) I also thought about a way for users to scan tabbed window content from the Tasklist Overlay using thumbnails:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26671354 N05/3442783773/sizes/o/in/photostream/
Anyway, I hope some of this is of some help, or at least
that is can spur other better ideas.
Regards,
Brian