>About that breadcrumbs, I just found great video, which reminds me of Application/Documents list on the left and breadcrumbs on the top, very >inspirative: http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-mac/
That video is amazing. I liked the logical nature of breadcrumbs before, but if it could incorporate the kind of animation in that video to bring the whole desktop to life, it would be an instant crowd pleaser -- something that people would want to use as soon as they saw it. There really is a lot to learn there.
One thing thing I think I would do though is to try to increase the use of graphics as opposed to pure text in the breadcrumbs interface. Also, try to figure out how to avoid repetition of the focused window titlebar and top panel when not maximized. Perhaps non-minimized windows could just have the document/webpage title by itself (no application name, and no breadcrumb trail), and the top panel could use the breadcrumb trail + application name (which is shorter) and no document title?
What happens if the stacks of
"minimized"/shaded windows gets high enough to obscure the bottom parts of maximized windows? Would maximized windows not be allowed to extend beyond the top region of where the stack ends (like full sized windows can't compete with AWN for real-estate)?
I also think having text in a lot of places is fine, so long as it serves the purpose of clarifying the UI in a way that would be difficult to understand otherwise. I think the perfect combination is to have a good mix of text and graphics (stating the obvious there). As for workspaces not having recognizable names, perhaps the overlay could simply produce generic number labels easily visible above each workspace. If a workspace gets named as part of an Activity
(IFF those are even implemented), then all the better for clarity's sake.
Regards,
Brian
On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 00:11, Milan Bouchet-Valat
<nalimilan club fr> wrote:
Le vendredi 17 avril 2009 à 10:25 +0200, Johannes Schmid a écrit :
> Hi!
>
> > On IRC, Marina suggested using the breadcrumbs on top for switching
> > windows, and for requesting attention at another workspace or when
> > another window is maximized. Owen mentioned that the designs might be
> > too text-heavy, and for example 'Workspace 1' isn't recognizable if
> > you don't see the name elsewhere.
>
> Well, the activities should get names (but that was suggested with some
> mockups yesterday). It don't think it's too text heavy. Of course all
> icons are missing from the current markup but that's not the point here.
Exactly. I take it! I'm planning to publish some basic code to implement
activities in a few days (for now, they're merely associated with workspaces,
and used to track application usage on an activity basis).
I was looking for a place to show the current activity name, and your
idea would really be nice. Now, I was also thinking of adding a way to
show a list of activities, and allowing to start them - i.e. to create a
workspace associated with it, and (ideally) to restore its applications
state. I'm still not sure where I should put it: maybe by clicking on
the name of the current activity in the design you posted? or with a new
list just like applications'?
Suggestions welcome...
--
Best regards, Dušan Maliarik // cell: +420 722 810 140
