Re: zooming in/out at any user's move? is it good or bad?

[Samuel Arthur Wright Illingworth <mazz0 mazz0 com>]

2010/1/25 Vitorio Okio <ovitorio hotmail com>

I was preparing this as an answer to "nodata" in "multiple desktop
usability" thread.  But then decided to open a new thread instead, as I
feel this is important.

I think a discussion "are multiple desktop good or bad" is absolutely
fruitless.  For some of us they are indispensable, others never use them.
This is a simple matter of preference. I personally do not use them. But
again, never mind this.

The problem as I see it, is an excessive and mostly absolutely
unnecessary zooming in/out of the entire screen. No matter does one uses
multiple desktops or not.

Even if one does uses multiple desktops, why would he want to zoom in/out
his screen every time he needs to get access to a menu, to a search bar,
to a recent documents list, to an icon in the most used apps, etc.?

For heaven sake could anybody answer such a simple question?

Another question... If I go to a search bar, to a recent documents list,
to a menu item, does it mean I want to see Activities Overview?  No, most
of the time I wouldn't care less.

According to the GNOME Shell design documents it is supposed to address
"...problems of Focus, Attention, and Interruption"

I cannot imagine anything more obtrusive and disruptive as the Activities
Overview get open and taken a good portion of my screen, and the entire
screen zooming out, each time I want to get to a menu, to a search bar,
to a recent documents list, to an icon in the most used apps, etc.

I might sound silly, but I want the Activities Overview open only when I
want... Guess what?..  ONLY when I want to Overview my Activities.

I might sound silly, but I want my screen to zoom in/out ONLY if I do use
multiple desktops, and ONLY when I want to see them all at once.

Again, IMHO, GNOME Shell today in this part contradicts to declared goals
of its design document.  It is uncomfortable to use, and is targeting
only one specific part of community users.

But even this part of the community users will soon get sick and tired of
the screen zooming when there is not any need for it.

I agree with almost all of that.  I don't think "It is ... targeting only one specific part of community users" is true, as I think this is designed as the window selector for users of only one workspace too, but I agree that the way the whole screen changes into something completely different any time you want to do one of several very different things, e.g. starting applications, finding documents, switching between windows, switching between workspaces, restoring minimized applications, (which, in my view, shouldn't all be bundled into one one-size-fits-all tool anyway) is very off-putting.

-- 
Sam Illingworth