Re: People menu



On Tue, 2007-10-30 at 15:36 +0200, Lucas Rocha wrote:
> Hi online folks,
> 
> I've posted some ideas for online desktop integration in GNOME here:
> 
> http://blogs.gnome.org/lucasr/2007/10/30/people-menu-online-desktop-and-instant-messaging-in-gnome/
> 
> Comments?.

  "My main argument is that we should not have a separate “online
   desktop mode” but try to turn our desktop into a web-aware
   environment."

My reaction to that is that we *are* trying to turn GNOME into a
web-aware environment. The online desktop mode is just a way to let
people try out our idea for the next generation of GNOME while still
largely using unmodified GNOME components.

The sidebar is our current best idea of the user interface, but
certainly the idea of the Online Desktop isn't tied to it ... you could
also do it by extension of the current user interface.

Some of the reasons we've been working on a sidebar

 * We believe that the prevalence of wide-screen formats make a sidebar
   natural for a lot of people. Web pages don't need or take advantage
   of the full width of a wide screen. (The minimize-to-and-applet
   mode of the sidebar is more menu-like and designed for people 
   with less screen real estate or more things to do with their 
   screen real estate.)

 * The sidebar provides a way of radically changing the
   emphasis of the UI...to concentrate on different things, like your
   friends, rather than launching applications.

 * We try to actively present useful information to the user rather than
   making the user always have to go and navigate to it. If you reserve
   an area of the screen for this you can do so with less distraction
   and annoyance then popups. (The "currently playing music" track
   feature] in the people stock works a lot better for me than music
   popups in the Mugshot stacker.)

 * People need a graphical image in their head of "what's different"   
   about a new version. There's value to looking different just to look
   different.

- Owen

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