From: Marina Zhurakhinskaya <marinaz redhat com>
To: Brian Fleeger <brianfleeger yahoo com>
Cc: Gnome List <gnome-shell-list gnome org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 5:32:16 PM
Subject: Re: Activity Space Mockup
> [...]Since the right-click might not be discoverable
>enough, we can have icons in the top right corner
>of each activity for certain actions, just as you
>propose having icons for the windows in the Frame view.
Using an icon in the top right corner is a great idea. Graphically, it *could* be rendered (on mouse-over) to look like a corner peeling away on the upper right corner of the Activity Space, revealing the preferences icon beneath. Kind of like the corner is peeled away in this pic: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/peel-away.jpg
>2) I like an idea of having a second Frame view [...]
>I think we should represent them in the same way
>as we represent them in the overlay mode, which
>is currently expose style. We can try it out with
>both styles though.
I suggested a grid format in response to a developers' posting on this
list that observed opening new windows changed widows' spatial
orientation, making them sub-optimal as a task organizer/list. Using a
grid was my way of engineering around that issue -- but I agree it would be
visually inconsistent with the primary Activities overlay. The "Expose" view shows larger, more recognizable window renderings, and is visually more appealing.
>3) We should minimize the number of ways the
>user can perform a certain action. [...] having
>Files/Tools and Applications/Contacts panels
>in the Frame mode duplicates what can be done
>in the Overlay mode and introduces another way
>of browsing through the same types of items.
>Making activity-relevant applications/files/folders
>is something we should consider though when
>we work on implementing activities.
As I envisioned the Frame, it would not be capable of exploring or browsing through objects -- rather, it would be a "dumb launcher" and task/window organizer. An analogy would be like OSX's "Finder", vs. the "Dock," where I see the "Frame" as being a dock of sorts (albeit an activity-specific
customizable one), and the "Activities" overlay is more like Finder. But really, I am sure there are a hundred great ways to transfer the "Frame" paradigm to Gnome-shell -- I am just glad to hear you all may use it in some form at all.
>4) If the task list is not visible, we'll need to
>address the issue of how an application would
>display urgency. [...] We can possibly have an
>icon representing the task list in the panel or
>have that be handled by the notifications center.
I imagined status app status updates and notifications would be handled through some new notification system like what Canonical is developing.
>[...] we can have an icon designating the window as
>part of the tiled set, but I think we can just
>have the user press-in that icon on a few
>windows and then they will be automatically
>tiled in the main view. The user would then
>be able to
change tiling orientation by moving
>one of the windows, and the placing of others
>would adjust automatically.
As an alternative way to change orientation, there could be a template of tiling layout options that only appears after windows have been "tile bonded." The icon representing the templates could be visually outstanding/obvious, and might even look something like the "view mode selector" as seen in the upper right corner of this picture: http://live.gnome.org/Boston2008/GUIHackfest/WindowManagementAndMore?action="" It could even be dynamic, in that it might provide more/different templated tile layout options based on how many windows are selected. There should probably be an artificially fixed upper limit to how many windows can be tiled at once.
Thanks for your positive feedback, I am constantly amazed at how fast this project
is developing!
Regards,
Brian
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Fleeger" <
brianfleeger yahoo com>
To: "Gnome List" <
gnome-shell-list gnome org>
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 8:01:41 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Activity Space Mockup
Hi all,
I have put together a mockup of some ideas about activity spaces -- please have a look at the attached PDF document.
My idea is have two overlay modes: the current one for general/complex use, and another "Frame" for displaying the task-list and launching frequently used objects. Users could use the first to search out applications and files that are infrequently used, or to reorganize Activity Spaces, while they would use the second to activate the
task-list and to open apps and documents within a given activity. I tried to avoid redundancy with the main overlay where possible. I think of the main "Activity" overlay as like a big store-room that holds everything, where the "Frame" would be like the tool box you take with you to do a specific activity -- that is, you only take the objects you need for the job.
In the attachment I detail three user interfaces:
1) a task/window list method based on thumbnails;
2) a "Frame" palett for user-customizable activity spaces, and;
3) an intuitive (IMO) graphical way to tile windows based on thumbnails.
At the end, I give an alternative task-list based on an expose-like view, but I know from this list that there are complications with that. It is usually not a good idea to talk about too many variables in one proposal, but all three kind of blend into one another, so please pardon me if it seems like brain dump.
The
idea of using frames came from playing with the OLPC Sugar OS, as well as this early ToPaZ design: (
http://live.gnome.org/BrianMuhumuza/ToPaZ/DeskTop ). The idea of using thumbnails to list windows comes from the Palm Pre/Web OS method of switching apps using a "card" metaphor (effectively thumbnails lined up in a row). The only thing which (I believe) I thought of completely on my own was how to tile windows using thumbnails.
Regards,
Brian
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