Re: Exposing open windows (taskbar replacement, gestures? and more)

[Jon Nettleton <jon nettleton gmail com>]

On Sat, 2009-10-24 at 11:33 -0400, Dan Winship wrote:
> Once nice thing I've realized about the taskbar is that since it's
> always visible, you can reach for the mouse and scan for the window tab
> you want in parallel, so that once you've got the mouse, you know
> exactly where you need to move it.

>From users who have tried the breadcrumbs prototype I received feedback
that they thought it was just as quick as the taskbar.  Of course this
is with a single point of entry and no windows exposed until the drawer
was opened.  I mainly attribute this to the fact that the window
ordering was very consistent which let muscle memory take over.  Knowing
in the back of your head that during this session firefox is 1 row down
and two columns to the left really makes the task more automated for
your body.

I think the visual scanning + mouse combination helps out with the
taskbar because the targets are rather small and non-descript.  With
large live-previews and icons it allows the user to be a little less
precise so the scanning can happen faster when the information is made
visible to them.

Just my opinion.

--Jon