RE: Reprise of the panel layout proposal

[Jorg Rathlev <joerg jrsoftware de>]

> I would suggest that "Current Tasks" be a better name for the menu,
> "Running" sounds too jargonny to me. Then the empty menu could be
> labelled "No current task" which is more concise and still hints that
> this may change in the future (or past).

Isn't "task" also a bit jargony? It's used in a different sense in
computer science than in the "real world". Though i can't think of a
better term right now. "Current Documents" maybe, but unfortunately
many applications are too application-centric for this to work well,
and there are some applications which simply aren't documents.

On the other hand, I'm just thinking if a task-centric UI could be
just The Right Way between a document-centric user interface and an
application-centric user interface.


> "Programs", perhaps, but that's not exactly obvious either. I'm
> leaning towards "New task" to go with a "Current task" menu. Myself,
> I'll make my panel "Icons only" as soon as I can, so I don't care what
> it's label is. :)

Thinking about the task centric UI, "New Task" seems a pretty good
choice.

> Oooh, *nice*. You can't very well put "Log out" under "New tasks", can
> you? That'd invite more questions than the Start menu ("Why do I have
> to press `Start' to stop using my computer?"). :)

Ahh, that one. It's like... uhh, like having to switch a light on and
off using the same switch, right? Seriously, I don't think putting
that into the start menu is a big usability problem. About the only
people who rant about it seem to be computer experts :)

However one needs to be careful about the label for such items, I
remember my mom always quit her *applications* using "Start -
Beenden". That's because "Beenden" is the German word for "quit", and
it seemed obvious to her to start and quit apps using the same
menu. And no, she never wondered why she had to quit all apps at
once...


> To sum up, my proposal for a default panel layout would be something
> like this:
> 
> * a horizontal corner panel in the lower left, containing

I don't like corner panels, I think a panel that covers the whole
bottom would be a better choice, even if it does leave some unused
space. But this is, of course, mostly a personal preference, I have
not done any user testing except testing myself :)


> Every panel (including the default) should have a small button across
> the far end (bottom or right for edge panels, the opposite end of
> drawers) that pops up the current "Add to panel" menu, including such
> items as "lock screen button", "log out button", "run button", the
> applets submenu, and so forth.



_ _ __________           (desktop area)
            | |
            | |
 (panel)    |>|
            | |
- - --------'-'----------------------------- - -
             ^
           the button


Like this? I like the idea, but it conflicts with the "slide away"
button, doesn't it?


Jorg