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I'd say rather than the close button in the upper right, but the close button to the left of the + button. Either immediately tot eh left or the left hand side of the workspaces window. Your ideas still have the problem with the 'prank' in that you can constantly click the mouse without moving it to open numerous windows, but must move the mouse around to close windows. As far as details go, why not have the details pop out to the right on mouseover? Then they could have the ideas like recently open documents. right now the user chooses details, then when X out the details has to navigate back to the application all the way from square one. > Subject: The weird Close and Info buttons > From: dylanmccall gmail com > To: gnome-shell-list gnome org > Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:09:32 -0700 > > Hi everybody! > > > I see lots of really nice looking designs being tested out lately, but > so far the buttons to close workspaces and to get info for objects have > seen no changes beyond the first iteration. I don't really have enough > know-how in this project's code to fix it myself, but I can sure do > suggestions! > > First of all, workspaces. Is there a technical reason why the user can't > close any empty workspace he chooses in any order he chooses? I'm > picturing a really fun computer prank right now: when someone walks away > from his desk, mash that big Plus button for a few minutes... Figuring > out the order in which to close workspaces again is really painful. > My big issue right now, though, is the placement of that Close button, > which only makes that pain worse. Clicking on the center of a workspace > to _close_ it is not obvious. I would expect clicking on the center of a > workspace to focus it. > > The current nightly build of Chromium has something for the new tab page > that may be worth borrowing. When the user hovers over a thumbnail, a > little blue bar appears above it (much like a usual window title bar). > Close on the top right, and a pin button to the left. While adding extra > buttons kind of goes beyond the scope of what I'm suggesting here, that > popping bar /would/ add a nice platform for the UI belonging to > workspace-related functions. (I believe workspace saving was in the > original brainstorm, for example...). > > Quick mockup here: > <http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/2333/workspacecloseafter.jpg> > (Before: > <http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/9981/workspaceclosebefore.jpg>) > > Another option is just a solid, floating Close button, but to the top > right. Not the middle. If the shell is going to be a conduit as opposed > to a destination, it needs to have as few gotchas as possible. Changing > the defacto placement of the close button (and, for that matter, making > it a "Do Not Enter" sign) feels like one of those gotchas. > > > > The Details button for applications and documents could do with a > similar touch-up. It's an awesome thing. Click it and you get a nice > pane with information. In the future, that pane could be extended in > some really great ways, I bet. (Recent documents opened by applications, > courtesy of Zeitgeist, for example). So, it seems silly to me that we > hide that rather important piece of functionality in a tiny icon on such > a huge bit of space. Especially so, since hiding the icon doesn't > actually save space; it's already reserved for the icon. > We can't expect people to find this feature or use it with ease when it > takes a moment of hovering over a document for the Details button to > appear, then actually aiming the mouse at the little icon takes further > work. (As opposed to just pointing to the right of the document and > clicking in a care-free manner). > > A solution may be to draw a more visible block to the right side of that > document where the Info button is always visible. This way it's an easy > to click, obvious hot spot that the user could be attracted to. > Even if it takes up 100% vertical space, the Details button should > probably only be fully lit when it is, itself, being hovered (as opposed > to the document it refers to). As things are, clicking near the Details > button is a dangerous act; for me, it is uncertain whether I'm clicking > that details button or about to "really open" the document. > > > Thanks, > Dylan McCall Get back to school stuff for them and cashback for you. Try BingT now. |