[Usability] Suggestions to make Gnome 3 / shell better

[jasir <jasiralavi gmail com>]

Hello all,

Here are some ideas that I think would get gnome 3 and the new activities thing working better for most people.

1. Keep the activities hot corner as it is on the top left. Add a bottom right hot corner for getting straight to applications menu.

2. Add two more icons next to activities icon in the left corner of the top bar - applications & places.licking on these should take the user straight to that mode.

3. In the activities mode, add a Places tab next to Windows and Applications tabs. Makes most users feel at home (some thing similar to the old Apps-Places-Settings gnome menu look, yet the functionality and feel would be much different. read on pls)

4. Bring the search box closer to Windows-Applictions-Places tabs.
Benefits of 1-4:

(a) the pointer now needs to move only within the top-left quarter of the screen.
(b) Everything a user works with is max one click away (using the 3 icons)

See my Mock-ups:
Mock-up Picture 1: http://i44.tinypic.com/34plwk9.png
Mock-up Picture 2: http://i42.tinypic.com/rktyd2.png

5. Places: Should look similar to Applications. Show Computer, Desktop, Documents, Pictures, etc as a list on Left. The larger area to the left of the list divided in to two parts - upper part showing bookmarked places and lower part showing recent folders/documents.

6. Improving Navigation using keyboard.

(a) Win key: Opens the Windows Acivity Tab (as it is now)
(b) Alt+Win key: Opens Applications.
(c) Alt+Space : Opens the Places Tab. (see mock-ups above)

(d) In activity mode: Tab should toggle between Windows-Applictions-Places.

(e) Up, Down, Left, Right navigation keys to easily browse through the icons displayed under the tab. This will be the different windows in Windows tab, and different icons in Applications and Places tab.

6. Making search more logical: search works differntly for each tab senario:

(a) Windows tab: searches the currently running windows from all workspaces and shows the results on top with a picture of the application (with a small overlay icon for quick recognition). If no matching windows are found, then the search shows applications with similar name that the user may open.
This will help users switch an application running on another workspaces quickly. And incase it is not open, he can open it from the same search without moving to the Applications tab (saves time).

(b) Application Tab: Search will list the matchin applications in the category selected.
Moving the category list to the left as mentioned earlier will make navigation easier. People are used to the left to right way of moving in menus. So now user can: Click Applications (or Alt+Win) choose the category right under the Applications tab (or press down to navigate) and then click on the icon (or move to right with key and get to the
application and press Enter)

(c) Places: searches through the documents and files on the system or selected folder/place on the list on the left side. (haven't made a mock-up yet, but will be a cross between the Applications tab and the Nautilius with sidebar open.

Hope all this makes some sense.

regards,

Jasir

Attachment: mockup-1.png
Description: PNG image

Attachment: mockup-2.png
Description: PNG image