[Usability] Taking Advantage of Spatial Memory with the GS Window Picker

[Allan Caeg <allancaeg ubuntu com>]

Hello,

The Dash and the planned Workspace Switcher�take advantage of the user's spatial memory. It does so by having a fixed arrangement of items (app icons for Dash/workspaces for Workspace Switcher). Their linear order of the items can also be changed manually by the user and this order can have meaning attached to it (like sorting by level of importance).�

On the other hand, the Window Picker is two-dimensional instead of linear. Also unlike the Dash and Workspace switcher, the arrangement of items (in this case, windows) depends on an algorithm and the user can't manually edit the sorting.�

To visualize it, see�http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/7938/windowpicker.png�.�

This is my recommendation�inspired by Firefox Panorama. Like on the dash, let's take advantage of the user's spatial memory by attaching a fixed linear relationship between windows. It'll still be flexible by allowing to user to manually rearrange windows, so the user can meaningfully sort them. The approach here is just a bit different from the Dash or Window Picker, because there's a bigger real estate allocated, but the principles would be fundamentally similar.�

It's best to read the Principles of Design that Aza wrote here�to understand the rationale behind and to test the latest Firefox 4 beta build�to test how it works.�

Thoughts?

--
Regards,
Allan

User Experience Designer
http://www.google.com/profiles/allancaeg#about
+63 918 948 2520