Forgot about removing the display on hover feature of the global menu. It should without a doubt be set to always visible by default!
2011/5/27 Niklas Rosenqvist <[email protected]> > Hello everybody! > After I've taken part in a lot of discussions since the release of Ubuntu > 11.04 I've finally come up with a complete list (for the moment) of features > and changes which I and hopefully the rest of the Ubuntu community would > like to see implemented. Since it's a rather extensive list have I grouped > every topic into sections and accompanied all the features/changes with > mockups. > > I had problems with taking screenshots of the dash and context menus, I > later found that this was a bug, so I made many of the UI-elements from > scratch by referencing some Natty Alpha screenshots I found (until I thought > of taking pictures in a virtual machine). If you need a Unity photoshop > template you can download the PSD-file here: > > http://tests.nsrosenqvist.com/resources/Unity-2.0.psd.zip > > ----- > > *Lenses - Dash* > * > * > As the lenses are currently implemented they are not as effective little > applications as they were originally planned to be. First of all, the lenses > inhabiting the launcher are just wasting launcher space. By searching in the > dash you still get the results from the lenses which are installed by > default on a Ubuntu 11.04 installation, without needing to go through their > respective launchers. > > When I first heard of lenses I was intrigued but later when I learned that > every lens would take up valuable launcher space they just felt unnecessary. > I wouldn't want to explore new lenses if they were going to occupy my > launcher bar. But I think that by including them into the dash we would more > effectively handle lenses. There would only be one "lens" - the dash - and > within it you could specify further which lens you would like to use if you > aren't happy with the search results. My guess is that most people are using > the dash to search for files and applications, much like they do with > programs as Gnome-Do so this would be the default search feature. But as you > can see in the image provided below you can see how easy it would be to > search from another lens: > > http://i.imgur.com/76Jge.jpg > > (Note: The icons used for other services are taken off the internet and I > haven't looked up the license terms for them) > > ----- > > *Launcher bottom area* > * > * > In the previous mockup you might have noticed that in the bottom of the > launcher is a bar with the same height as the top panel and the same width > as the "Ubuntu button" (Sorry for not knowing the correct terminology). I've > removed the trash/wastebasket from the launcher since it has been noted > several times in the ayatana discussions that it can just as easily be > accessed from within Nautilus and isn't important enough to take up a whole > launcher. Though it's very important that new users to Ubuntu are finding > familiar elements to their previous OS of choice (e.g. OS X or Win) and both > provide a clear trash launcher/shortcut. So instead of removing it > completely I integrated it into the bottom area of the launcher together > with the most important part of this area...* > * > > I don't know what to call the button farthest down in the left corner since > it's a multifunction button. As default it triggers the workspace switcher, > this enables us to remove it from the launcher, and to be fair it wasn't a > very good place for it to be to begin with. Sure it's on the edge of the > screen but having it in the bottom corner makes it incredibly easy to access > (Fitt's Law), very much like the "show desktop"-button in Win7. Now you can > just through the cursor into the corner and almost always hit it instead of > having to aim for it on the launcher. > > But since there are so many ways of switching windows I figured that it > should be configurable to trigger the function which the current user > prefer. By providing a context menu to it together with options to set one > of the following (are there more alternatives?) as default: Workspace > Switcher, Spread, Expo mode, "Alt+Tab", and "Show desktop". > > ----- > > *Toggle background lighting as default and window management* > > You might also have noticed that the launchers have their background > lighting set to toggle. In a default Ubuntu 11.04 installation all launchers > have brightly colored backgrounds, this has been shown confusing for new > users (source email: "[Ayatana] Fwd: Re: People expect the backlight colours > on the unity launcher to mean something") since they expect the color to > mean something. I also like that running applications are shown more clearly > instead of just the arrow on the left side of the launcher. It's much easier > to switch between running applications by the launcher with this. > > I know that the launcher behaves more like a dock than a task bar but we > have had bunch of discussions on app-centric vs window-centric and I think > in everyone of them we've agreed on that we should make users coming from > both OS X and Win should be somewhat familiar with how it all works. It's > also incredibly frustrating to work with many open windows of the same > application and expose or scale doesn't provide any information of what the > different windows contain if it's either a terminal window or a text > document. > > So I propose that either enable expo mode for the current application on > double clicking the launcher, but then also provide close and minimize > buttons and a text box with the window title for both Expo mode and Spread > mode. Or implementing a Win7 like popup. > > The Win7 method has been argued many times since the delay on showing the > popup heavily cripples the work flow but this could be fixed with a very > minimal delay so that it doesn't flicker a bunch of popups when scanning the > launcher quickly but as soon as it slows down the popups will start to show. > Together with this and on mouse click showing both the popup and latest used > window it could work. It could be implemented like this: > > http://i.imgur.com/9kGkS.jpg > > I also made a small but significant change: making the launcher "background > bubbles" look less prominent. Right now when they aren't running and > background light is set to toggle it looks like the launcher is inhabited by > bubbles. That's why I faded the background just a bit, maybe it can be done > more or be redesigned but it look a little bit better at least. Here is an > image showing the change, the left half is how it looks normally and the > right half is it with faded backgrounds: > > http://i.imgur.com/g2oMe.jpg > > ----- > > *Launcher overflow* > * > * > Am I correct to assume that the only reason why there needs to be a Unity > 2D project is that the launcher utilizes 3D effects? In that case I think > the overflow of launchers could be handled with a glow on the side where the > launcher overflows. In my mockup you have to imagine that the glow was on > the bottom earlier but the user scrolled down to the bottom launcher so that > the overflow is now on top. This is because in the mockup I chose to have it > on top to be able to show the launcher bottom area without any additional > distractions. Nuff said: > > http://i.imgur.com/SOl9z.jpg > > A glow effect like this could provide the same functionality without > 3D-effects. > > There is also a problem with the scrolling of the launchers. If you scroll > down to select an application the launchers automatically scroll backup > after selection. If I scroll down it means that I want to work with the > applications in focus, not the ones which are set to "keep in launcher". > > ----- > > *Ubuntu Welcome Center* > > Today when a new user uses the OS for the first time there is no way for > him/her to know what do next. There is a help program but how is he/she > supposed to find out about it? When I first started using Ubuntu/Linux I had > to go online and read tutorials in blog posts. This isn't a professional way > of handling this problem - leaving it to somebody else. Windows feature a > welcome center program and even Linux Mint does. So why doesn't Ubuntu? I > made this mockup earlier for the thread "[ayatana] Ubuntu Welcome Center". > Imagine it without "install ubunu-restricted-extras" and add a checkbox for > "show on startup" and maybe add an "Open the browser to go online"-button: > > http://i.imgur.com/pQkYj.jpg > > The discussion in that thread turned away from the subject and became about > the Yelp vs Ubuntu Tour project instead. But the main idea is that we should > give new users a tour of some kind of the OS, much like what the Ubuntu Tour > people are working on but perhaps integrated into Yelp but providing the > tour with a much improved UI. > > ----- > > *Global menu* > > The global menu is a much discussed topic in the ayatana discussions, some > can be found in the "global menu in oneric oceleot (11.10)"-thread and the > "Thoughts on unity design"-thread. I myself want to remove the top panel > completely since it removes the choice of how to implement a menu from the > developers. Chromium has a great one button menu and Opera and Firefox as > well but they cannot benefit from their design choices if they are forced to > use a global menu. I would much rather see that chromium's tabs took the > space of the title bar/global menu instead. It also prevents developers to > design relatively to the top edge of the screen (Fitt's law) since the top > panel takes away that possibility for them. Please read the earlier > mentioned discussions to get a complete overview of the pros and cons. > > I myself have come to the conclusion that it cannot be removed without a > complete overhaul of the OS, branching away from GNOME completely. The app > indicators would have to be replaced because all third party indicators are > designed for horizontal panels. So therefore the panel probably must stay > for the time being. But I think that there should at least be a > configuration option to turn off the global menu. > > Some earlier design sketches which maybe can trigger your imagination: > > http://i.imgur.com/f8q2c.png > (clarification: the menu is shown on default and it's state is remembered > per application) > > http://i.imgur.com/biN5v.png > http://i.imgur.com/wSLus.png > > ----- > > *Other thoughts* > * > * > *Launcher context menu** > * > It would be good to have a context menu for the launcher with some logical > options:* > * > > http://i.imgur.com/HTaS4.jpg > * > * > *Launcher alignment** > * > Please enable us to align the launchers to both the right and bottom side > of the screen. Blogs often have the content on the left side and navigation > to the right, since we read from left to right we will always be fed > information from the launcher and never be able to fully focus on the > content instead. So please make it configurable for those who want to move > it. > * > * > *Design consistency* > Quick lists and regular context menus, Dash and Ambiance ... it looks > completely different. Please aim for better consistency.* > * > > *Ubuntu software center and the repositories* > As always I have some thoughts about the USC but haven't actually made a > mockup of my own. Anyways I'd just like to say that it needs a revamp, > preferably removing the sidebar and integrating it somehow better into > content view. Or follow this mockup's example: > > > http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/05/this-awesome-ubuntu-software-centre-mock-up-would-get-my-custom/ > > OMG! Ubuntu also brought up PPA's and their use today. They are originally > meant to work as way for developers to test the applications but this has > been misused often and serves as an alternative distribution form instead of > the repositories. This is partly because that no application gets upgraded > between the Ubuntu release cycles. So if an application like firefox 5 gets > released in the middle of a release cycle we have to wait to have the most > up to date software. This isn't how it's supposed to be, the users should > always have the most up to date software available. So this needs to be > fixed. Read the following article if you want to learn more: > > > http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/05/the-evolution-of-the-personal-package-archive-system/ > > *A unified Ubuntu design and development platform** > * > There are so many ways to discuss ideas and so few to get them implemented. > There are no good way to submit feature requests except for filing a bug > report, what's up with that? We have mail discussions, Ubuntu brainstorm, > Launchpad, and practically no feedback from the developers. We need a place > where all ideas and bugs can be viewed organized by both designers, > developers and the community. Not by splitting it all up into a new forum > but by removing the existing and start from scratch. In practice an in and > out channel between Canonical, other developers and the rest of the > community.* > * > > ----- > > Wow! I Hope I haven't forgotten anything now, this took some time :) Thank > you very much for reading and I hope we get a good Oneiric Ocelot to look > forward to! >
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