Re: [Usability] Grouping Windows: Sticky Windows

[Nadyne Mielke <nmielke acm org>]

At 05:41 PM 4/4/2004, you wrote:

> This would basically work just like XMMS: when windows are dragged near
> each other, they snap together like magnets so when you move one, you
> move the whole as a group. The only non intuitive part is a notion of
> "root" or "parent" sticky window, so moving the parent moves all of
> them, and moving the child detaches it. Alternatively, stickiness could
> a metacity menu command, with a corresponding "unstick" command to
> detach child windows.

I think that you hit on the biggest problem with this idea: the concept of 
a 'parent' window and 'child' windows.

Which window is the parent window?  Let's say that you start with windows 
A, B, and C.  Move B towards A.  Which one is the parent window?  Let's 
assume window A (the one that was stationary during this exercise) is the 
parent window.  Now move sticky_window A+B towards C.  Is A still the 
parent window, or does C become the parent window?  This situtation is a 
catch-22.  If A is still the parent window, you have the same user action 
with different outcomes.  If C becomes the parent window, then you have a 
parent window that's dependent on your last action.  [1]

If I stick three windows together on Friday, leave my system untouched for 
the weekend, and then come back and want to move the three windows as one 
unit on Monday, how do I know which window to click?  What if I want to 
close the window (or remove it from the rest of the group) that happens to 
be the parent window, but want the child windows to maintain their spatial 
location and their stickiness?

Outside of the question of parent windows, how do I prevent windows from 
sticking?  I might want to just have two windows next to each other without 
sticking, or one window on top of each other (which I often do when one 
window has some level of transparency).  The menu command that you've 
suggested approaches a solution to this problem, but I'd have to remember 
that my two windows aren't just next to each other.

How do I tell that windows are stuck together, and not just next to each 
other?  To use this at a system-wide level, it seems like we would need 
some sort of visual clue that these three windows over here are stuck 
together, and these four windows down there are stuck together, and these 
two windows in the middle that are next to each other aren't stuck together.

Outside of the issues that I've raised above (which may or may not be 
relatively easy to solve, I'm just throwing out some questions), what is 
the benefit for the user?

/nm

[1] Of course, this example may or may not be a problem.  The user might 
not have a conceptual issue with this scenario, and have no problems 
knowing that A is the parent window regardless of which [window | 
sticky_window] is the one that is moved.  But I'd want to see some 
usability testing to be certain. :)