Some thoughts about Gnome Shell (Keyboard Navigation; more self-explanatory UI; UI obstacles)

[Friedrich Gräter <graeter hydrixos net>]

Hello,
I'm following the GNOME Shell project for a while and already tried to
use it. I'd like the idea of trying a completely new innovative approach
for the GNOME desktop, which is unique and courageous in the whole field
of free and commercial desktop environments.

However, there are things I still miss or dislike on GNOME shell. I hope
this mail can give you some inspiration for further improvements. 

In this mail I just want to give only a short overview about some
thoughts. If you are interested, I will provide you a more detailed
argumentation and more detailed concepts for my ideas and critics.


Newbie-friendly features:
=========================
1. Providing something like Alt+Tab for non-power users:

- A shortcut is not intuitive. No newbie knows about it and he has no
way to discover it (beside reading documentation, which is bad). 

- A fast way to switch applications and application windows is also
needed for newbies


Power-user features:
====================
1. Keyboard movement of windows inside the current workspace (to edges
and between displays)

2. Switching between workspaces using keyboard (with a small overview
window showing me the content of all workspaces in the center of the
screen)

3. Moving windows between workspaces using the keyboard (also with a
small overview window)

4. Getting an overview of the windows of the current application with
one click or one keyboard shortcut

5. Getting an overview of all applications on the current workspace with
one shortcut


General features:
=================
1. Providing something like Deskbar in the top panel

2. Providing some application-specific buttons in the top-panel without
right-click (functions like "Create new Document", "Open new Window",
"Help" etc.). This would be terrific!

3. I'd like to have my favourite applications either in the top panel.
This is a place, which never moves away, so I can click on it very fast.
The sidebar is not an answer here, since it moves away every time.

4. I'd like to see some static information on the top panel, like the
current weather or if a new mail / IM has arrived.



What I dislike:
===============
1. The white-on-black design. Its bad for people with certain visual
impairments. Also it looks very unfriendly. Perhaps a bright theme would
be better...

2. The inconsistencies between the classical GTK design and the GNOME
Shell design. It is no problem to make a new visual design for GNOME 3.0
- but currently it feels very inconsistent...

3. The overlay is still not clean enough. It is hard to visually
separate the list on the left corner. And there are still too many items
on it.

4. The "more"-Buttons in the overlay resulting in a very unclean view.
It will present me a list with too many elements, which makes it hard to
find something. Especially since the resulting list fills the entire
screen.

5. The sidebar for various reasons:
	- It is hidden per default, which is bad for newcomers
	- If auto-hide is deactivated, it will waste space
	- Its functionality could be integrated into a deskbar-like menu
	- Or into a small favourite-applications-area in the top panel
	- It feels very inconsistent to the overlay and 
	  top-panel-approach



This is of course only my opinion and my personal believe. If you are
interested, I can give you also more detailed information and
argumentations about my ideas and critics. 

However it would be nice to hear about your opinion! 

Kind Regards,

Friedrich Gräter