Hey all,
Attached is a very simple graphic to relay my concept. I'm not a
designer and this doesn't truthfully convey my ideas however it gives
you a quick idea of what I'm about to talk about.
I tend to find that i use my computer for a few main reasons:
- Job Work - I have to work on projects for my employer
- My Work - I have various projects I work on outside of my usual
9-5 job
- Games
- Personal (Photo management/web surfing etc)
When I load my computer, depending on which of the above I
intend to do, I open the required applications, folders, websites etc
and this takes time. If i switch between the above tasks during my
session on the computer I end up with loads of things open and things
get a little less organised. My desktop tends to be a general dumping
ground where bits from all of my above tasks tend to sit together.
My suggestion is to create a way of creating specific workspaces
for these jobs. If you want to work on something, you would open it's
workspace then all your related emails, programs, folders, bookmarks,
desktop icons etc are all there and geared towards that specific task.
The 3 main ideas are:
Saved workspaces for specific purposes
I thought it would be really great to be able to create a workspace for
something such as 'Friends & Family', I could customise the
wallpaper, choose programs that would auto-launch and have different
icons on my desktop. Examples of this could be:
- A developer could have a workspace per project which would
automatically open his eclipse, web browser & previously open web
pages. On the desktop could be API documents etc
- A user could be job hunting and have a specific workspace
which opens there CV. They could have a folder containing all of the
job specs they've applied for and Firefox could open with job sites on.
- A user could have a workspace dedicated to their photographs,
when opened it would launch f-spot and on their desktop they could have
folders albums as well as gimp, picasa & xsane icons
The
workspaces could be saved so when you boot up your computer you can
return to a workspace just the way it was when you left it. This would
really increase efficiency when users first load up their pc &
contribute to organisation.
Widgets per workspace
Applications are really useful, but you don't know what's happening
within an application until it's open. I think that's where widgets
come in. I never really thought widgets were useful until I tried the
HTC hero phone - HTC have created 'sense UI', this is a layer on top of
the Android OS. They have created an array of really well made widgets
which make using the phone a much more enjoyable and efficient process.
I suggest similar widgets for email, news readers, stock tickers and
social networking (twitter, facebook) etc. These would be per workspace
so you could truly customise the workspace for the given task.
Accessing applications & data from different workspaces
In my pidgin client I have groups of contacts including: 'Friends',
'Colleagues', 'Family', 'Gaming friends' - I'd love to display the
Colleagues friend group on my 'work' workspace, my 'family' contacts on
'family' workspace etc. This would mean when I'm looking at my 'work'
workspace I wouldn't be disturbed by a friend linking me to a youtube
video, instead maybe a small notification would appearing telling me I
have a message waiting on my 'friends' workspace.
I also think email could be separated this way, you could associate an
imap folder and/or webmail accounts to a workspace, then when I'm
looking at 'work' I'd only ever see work emails and I'd flick to my
personal workspace to get my personal emails. This kind
of separation would make my average day on the computer much
more efficient.
You could have indicators showing if you have email waiting, IM's
waiting etc next to each workspace. It could even poll the workspaces
that aren't open ever so often. I know this sounds quite crazy but they
could potentially be achieved via widgets (mentioned in the previous
point) & a workspace alert/notification system?
Those are the 3 main ideas behind the concept but I have loads
more for how it could work and things that would make it more useful
(eg. storing your workspace configurations in the cloud (ubuntu one?)
so you could hop between them regardless of where you are).
Anyway thanks for reading and let me know what you think, even
if it is that i'm barking mad :P
- Jimmy
*** Sparkle Interactive ***
http://www.sparkleInteractive.co.uk
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