Re: Spatial Mode Window Cluttering and Possible Solutions

[Yuan Qi <gmanenews 3 maxchee spamgourmet com>]

Although tabbed interfaces are popular, they violate the spatial 
paradigm. This is not such a big problem for browsers, since people 
often associate folders with real life folders and tabbed interface will 
 make it confusing for them.

I think it's better if we keep the folder-to-window association.

Having said this, your design can be made more usable if the tabs are 
changed to location bar similar to the one found in the new GTK+ 
filechooser widget.

Have a look at XFCE's upcoming file manager thunar for some 
inspirations: http://thunar.xfce.org/wiki/ui:gtkfilechooser-like

Michael Favia wrote:
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> Yuan Qi wrote:
>
> > Ubuntu Bugzilla Entry: https://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=9125
> >
> > Nautilus spatial is a very user friendly way to navigate files, however, it
> > creates window clutter for users who use deep folder trees. I think a
> > discussion
> > needs to be made on how to improve the spatial mode, especially when we
> > start
> > considering all the controversies created by
> > https://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=8516
>
>
> Problem:
> Extra spatial window flotsam that occurs on your way to /foo/bar/baz
> (namely "foo" and "bar").
>
>
> Solutions:
> 1. Shift navigate. Automatically closes parents as you descend. Less
> than optimum to make users hold hotkeys to perform the arguably most
> desired functionality.
> 2. Close all parent folders. Automatically closes all folders above your
> destination. (retroactively fixes a problem that need not exist)
> 3. Implement tabbed browsing. (Description below)
>
>
> Description:
> A folder is opened and it gets a new spatial window. When users drive
> down into sub folders the position and size of the window will remain
> the same and the new spatial folders will show themselves as tabs in the
> original window (with custom emblems and backgrounds intact). The
> position and size of the window is remembered for the topmost folder
> (leftmost tab). At any juncture the user can open a folder in a new tab
> or undock a tab and create a new window (by rt clicking or dragging).
> This gives the user the control over what constitutes a "new
> navigational task".
>
> This also means that when users place launchers/symlinks for folders on
> their desktops they will correctly position themselves from the last
> time they used that folder.
>
> It works just like people use mozilla/firefox windows to separate tasks
> (check mail, read news) and use tabs to expand on particular areas of a
> task (read news, load a couple of the articles).
>
>  This means that there is less "random window position and size" and
> that the spatial metaphor stays intact but uses "navigational entry
> points" instead of all folders as the basis from which to derive the
> size and position aspects of the spatial metaphor. The structured nature
> of a hard drive makes this a great way to increase the efficiency of
> file navigation and the popularity of tabbed browsing means that we dont
> have to reexplain the wheel to the user base. Any comments?
>
>
> - --
> Michael Favia          michael favia insitesinc com
> Insites Incorporated  http://michael.insitesinc.com
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