Re: [Usability] Spatial Improvement: Default windows placement

[Frans Englich <frans englich telia com>]

On Tuesday 12 October 2004 16:04, Rob Adams wrote:

Hi Rob,

(I'm following up an old thread)

<snip>
> 3. Attempt "center tiling" on each xinerama in turn.  This involves
> calculating the required position the window such that we an fit as many
> on the screen as will fit, and the resulting set of windows will be
> "visually centered", meaning that there is twice as much space below the
> window as above it.  For large windows, the single window will be
> visually centered.

You here do an distinction between geometrical centering, and what we humans 
percept as centered. I think this sounds interesting -- can you possible 
elaborate? E.g, why do we percept it so? Do you know any literature or other 
documentation that discusses this?

AFAICT, tons of topics touches this: why is it popular to put the desktop 
panel at the top and not at the bottom of the screen? Why does people like 
tabbed browsing when a taskbar at the bottom is similar in functionality?(it 
could be related) Is status information/queues best delivered at the bottom 
or the top of the screen? As well as tons of layout questions.


Cheers,

		Frans