Re: Just show me my window

[William Jon McCann <william jon mccann gmail com>]

Hi hills,

On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 4:28 PM, hills <hills o2 pl> wrote:
> 2010/1/6 Allan Day <allanpday gmail com>:
>> How does this relate to the design of GNOME Shell? How does this
>> translate into design?
>
> Thank you for your comments. Sorry for not being as lucid as I wanted to be.

I think we are actually very much in agreement about a lot of things.
We do want one way to do things as much as possible.  And when that
isn't possible or practical we want to at least defer decision making
/ branching until as late in the process as we can.  This is one
reason why we have chosen a data rich planar design instead of the
deeply and widely branched decision flow design of GNOME 2.  We want
the user to be able to make side by side comparisons rather than
comparisons separated in space and time.  Mise-en-scène if you wish.

> To make it clear I will focus on my fundamental argument:
>   1) Application Well,
>   2) Workspace in Activities Overview,
>   3) Application Switcher
> contains the same thing: currently running applications.

So, #3 is a shortcut for more advanced users.  I don't think it is
appropriate to include it in this way as mere duplication.  #1
displays Applications, #2 displays Workspaces and Windows.  So, really
they aren't showing exactly the same thing.  It is possible to make a
pretty strong argument for why the window, and workspace metaphors
aren't interesting but that isn't something we've elected to pursue in
the Shell design at this time.  Check out the litl.com device for an
interesting take on a windowless computer design.

I think the distinction between apps and windows is fairly well
understood by most people these days.

> That is why Application Well and Application Switcher are unnecessary and all
> they functions should be taken by Workspace in Activities Overview.
> Here are some
> details how to do this:
>
> 1) Workspace in Activities Overview should display currently running
>   applications along with non-running applications (like in Application Well).
>   Users could just *switch* between applications and do not care about they
>   state (running/non-running).
>
>   Here is my *initial* mockup on how to understand this idea (please change
>   filename extension to .svg if you can not open this file as image):
>   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-shell-list/2009-December/binJISmcpCeNx.bin

It isn't bad.  In fact, looks very similar to the litl webbook design.
 What might help here is if you fill in the rectangles with the
content as you imagine it.  I think once you start to do that you may
notice some problems.  The first is what does a content display or
creation app look like when it is empty?  Is it recognizable?  Does it
need a name and an icon?  Does the app window thumbnail add value or
is it a distraction?  The second is do you need to show a window
preview for every page/document/content that I use for every app?
Does that scale?  Also, does that cause constant rearrangement of the
"launcher" positions?  Also does that make it prohibitively
inefficient for context switching?

Anyway, these are just some of the questions you need to try to answer
as you go deeper into the design.  You may already have answers for
them but they aren't clear to me.

>   In current Shell design non-running application are not out of context: in
>   Application Well. But should be on Workspace. When user click on non-running
>   application, he/she just change application state (non-running -> running).
>   This could be indicated by, for example, color of window border. There is no
>   need to have two different context: Application Well and Workspace since
>   Workspace can do the job alone.

This means that every workspace will need to have duplicated launchers
doesn't it?

> 2) Alt+Tab should not show another unnecessary widget: Application Switcher.
>   Alt+Tab should bring Workspace in Activities Overview, show only running
>   application and switch between them. This way there is one consistent method
>   for applications browsing, no need for another widget.

As mentioned above, this is merely a shortcut.  There is no additional
cost to the novice user.

> Recent documents should be presented in similar way as windows of running
> application in Activities Overview. This could bring excellent experience to
> users if they could browse they recent documents on full screen, scrolling,
> zooming and so on. This could be done, for example, like this:
> http://www.netbooknews.it/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/netbooknews-it-ubuntu-moblin-dell-media.png
>
> This way all left black panel in Overview Activities seems to be unnecessary,
> just like zooming out the whole Workspace instead of only windows.
>
> In my point of view, the main GNOME Shell duty is: show me this window,
> regardless of whether it is running/non-running application, document on my hard
> drive, Web page on remote server etc. There is no need for three completely
> different contexts to do this one thing, so Application Well and Application
> Switcher could be incorporated into Workspace in Overview Activities.

As stated above, I think you have some interesting ideas here.  I
encourage you to explore them further.  However, I don't agree that
our current model of showing both applications and windows is all that
problematic.

Thanks,
Jon