Re: [Usability] Dynamic Workspaces

[Daniel Brodie <daniel brodienet com>]

On Wed, 2004-03-03 at 20:08, Daniel Brodie wrote:
> Here is a small idea I had regarding the workspace behavior. I tried
> to make it short and to the point.
> I accidentaly posted this to d-d-l, so ignore that one.

I reacall reading a post made regarding the 2 dimentional workspace
layout that is usually used, but I cant find the post, nor mention to it
in the archives?

Anyway, it was a good point that I did not think through, but I would
like to 'append' a little to my original post.

- For 2 dimentional layouts, the way a user can set the # of rows in a
horizontal panel or the number of columns in a vertical panel, the
panels would grow from top to bottom and then left to right in a
horizontal case, and vice versa for the vertical case. So this would a
sample type of ordering:

	-----
	|1|3|
	|-|-|
	|2|4|
	-----

I think this is better then growing vertically in the horizontal space
because it does not require reordering of the workspaces when a new
owrkspace is added:

	---		-----
	|1|	=>	|1|2|
	---		|----
	|2|		|3|
	---		---

This addes the problems of people not used to ordering in a top down
approach. This can easily be solved by just removing the numbering of
workspaces to the user, and having the model be of just 'the next
availible space'. I am not sure the mental model is different enough
though. Any other ideas?

- Due to the problem above with the workspace numbering, the only case I
could find for workspace numbering is with metacity when moving a window
to a different workspace, which brings another issue I overlooked. I
users arn't intimatly familiar with thier workspaces anymore and are a
come and go thing then the whole numbering of workspaces dosnt make
sense. The new "Move to workspace $direction" in 2.5 is great, but there
is still numbering in the submenu.

Thats why I propose that that submenu should be changed to show a layout
of the workspaces rather then just the numbers. I dont know if this is
possible, but can it be done that when opening that submenu in metacity
a small workspace layout like selection will popup instead of another
menu? Then the user just needs to select the workspace visually. This is
somthing that would be great even now.

Any ideas? Suggestions?
Should I even think of trying to quickly implement somthing spring
break?

--
Daniel Brodie