tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post1036464283786791709..comments2023-10-16T10:35:47.595+02:00Comments on Martin's Chronicles: My Idea of Future Gnome DesktopMartinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-7399599933046474312009-04-09T14:06:00.000+02:002009-04-09T14:06:00.000+02:00I'm totally with you on the desktop being an activ...I'm totally with you on the desktop being an active place with little widgets and stuff, rather than a stagnant little collection of icons. I even posted an <A HREF="http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/18797/" REL="nofollow">idea on brainstorm</A>, which you might like to vote for (currently most people are against it; maybe because my initial idea of it behaving like a file manager is too strongly proposed), or maybe add a new solution with the things you mentioned.Martinhttp://martinceronio.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-64291315716471811142009-02-08T14:47:00.000+01:002009-02-08T14:47:00.000+01:00malwkgad, thanks for your comment. I have to aree ...malwkgad, thanks for your comment. I have to aree with most of what you said. The new panel idea is basically based on the fact that by joining tray, application launchers and taks list we'd saved a lot of space and removed some unneeded duplicity. I am also <B>not</B> and usabilty expert so my idea might not be the best one can develop ;-) <BR/><BR/>And I also totally forgot about DND, since I usually DND only between nautilus and various media players or menu and terminal or gedit... It would definitely needed to be thinked more throughoutly if anyone were to implement my idea. Probably DND would work same way as it works now with app launchers + there would be the additional option of selecting either a new window to be used for it or dropin into current window (i.e. staying for a while above the selected window would bring it to front and you could drop into it). Note that basic hoover actions over applets would need to instant in order to not hinder your speed.<BR/><BR/>As far as the space goes, I optimised the icon sizes/space between icons for my usage case - i.e. displaying in window list only apps on current desktop, 1280x800 display... There would surelly need to be a way to fit more icons if there is a need (like making them smaller, or making them slide in/out when hoovering right/left part of the dock).<BR/><BR/>As for the workspace switcher, I forogot to put there the epiphany window (and possibly other windows on other workspaces) partly out of laziness, but it would definitely need to be there. I also use it for DND windows between workspaces...Martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-3576916520521469022009-02-08T12:26:00.000+01:002009-02-08T12:26:00.000+01:00(sorry for my reply being so long)I would like to ...(sorry for my reply being so long)<BR/>I would like to start by saying I am <B>not</B> an usability expert, but still, reading your exposé made me want to add some notes.<BR/>* the current panel in gnome is really bad, I can confess, I even do not know where to start, but for example if I start scaling the size of it the icons do not scale with it, they scale on thresholds, I do not use it (I have only one panel and it is auto hidden, I use it just to host the tray and one important applet (revelation)<BR/>* I do not also use Nautilus to draw my desktop and, yes, I completely agree that it should be used for widgets / Desktop apps (like having the Desktop hint - i.e. conky and stuff like that, it should be able to host any root window drawing application, not only specially designed for gnome apps)<BR/>* workspace switcher - again completely agree that it should not resides in the panel, if, lets say, I have 9 workspaces on 3 rows (which is my current set up)and I have a panel of 24 pixels the switcher becomes completely useless, no one can click that precisely, if I have it on 1 row it takes the half of the panel, again completely unacceptable. The switcher should live outside the panel and should be able to hide itself, only shown on hover (or at least configurable that way). I also think it should display icons for the tasks that are run on it. I use this a lot on the metacity workspace switcher it helps me remember what I am doing on which workspace. I am not sure how many users are separating the different groups of tasks on different workspaces but if I am doing it there should be some others:) <BR/>* Unfortunately I am not convinces the new panel as presented is such a good idea. First of all using only icons makes it bigger right away and while the screens get bigger and bigger (more like wider and wider) the largest screen I have access to is 1680x1050 (which I believe is not custom on many laptops, the most sold laptops are 1280x800), so from those 800 pixels one will have to sacrifice at least 28 pixels for icons. In my case at least 32 or even 42 so that one can actually see the icons and recognize them without waiting for a tool tip to show up. One thing that can help is arranging the icons always in the same order so that the user will eventually learn which icons is which in the row, but this is not user friendly. It does not seem like much, and I really need that much pixels only with the web browsing (most web developers restrain themselves to the 1024 width boundary but one will always need to scroll down and the more space you have to display information without scrolling back and forth the better). Auto-hide makes the panel's task management function hard to use (because one will have to first go with the mouse to the hot spot so that the panel will be displayed and then find his way to the icon he/she needs, let's say that DND is also involved and that 5-6 firefox windows are spread all over the workspaces but displayed with one icon, then the steps become even more: start the DND, go to the hot spot, wait for the panel to show, find the firefox icon, hover over it, find the window in the displayed list, hover over it and wait for the window to show up, then drop the dragged item. Does not sound simple and doable to me. And while on the DND issue, current task manager in gnome panel also allows grouping windows but DND is completely not working if this is on - I can stay with my dragged item forever over the group icon the list of windows is never shown to me. I did not bother to fire a bug because I do not use the panel for task management any more. For the DND issue I will suggest something else:<BR/>* we know the desktop is not a place a DND can finish (because it is no longer managed by Nautilus) and there is one and only case - when we want to add a new desktop application, so we will need to know what is dragged, but this is doable.<BR/>* because we know the desktop is not where the DND can completes and because the user might want to drop the item in another visible window we might want to wait for the user to stop the motion over the root window i.e. not over another window that can accept the DND (for the appropriate timeout) and pop up a new window with the windows list - this is much more sane than having the user to go to whatever corner like it is now done with compiz Scale/Show desktop(and remember, there are four, each one with different use, all windows, all windows from current workspace, all windows from the same app that is currently active.... this is too much!) plus with those bigger and bigger screens getting to the corner might involve too much motion (imagine what it will be if the touchpad/trackpoint is not that responsive / lower acceleration - the user might even not be able to get to the corner if tapping only is used (i.e. the button 1 is not pressed thus the user cannot lift his finger but he is still not reaching the corner of the screen just the corner of the touchpad). The windows list should be grouped by application but should always show all windows we do not want to involve modifiers to keep it simple for the user. Once the new pop up is presented the user can position the DND over the window desired (should be small icons with at least some text) and stays on it for the timeout (which should be the same as now I guess) the window should be selected and revealed. Simple:)<BR/>Finally the proposed panel is hosting the starters and the tasks and the tray icons are large. But lets say the user is stuck with the 1024x768 display (like me on my thinkpad X61), the space between the icons on the proposed panel is too much, 10 windows and the panels should either shrink (thus making the icons even smaller) or should go out of the screen (thus hiding some icons). The panel task manager should keep all tasks available even those that are not on the same workspace, especially if the workspace switcher does not display the task icons like in your picture. <BR/><BR/>Of course I can be completely wrong, those are not my dreams and desires for gnome 3, those are my usability concerns from my personal point of view and use patterns. <BR/><BR/>And thank you for your work and for your time, I really appreciate the best looking engine ever (can't wait for the modern switch in nodoka).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com