Hi all,
I had some ideas about how to improve Elisa's integration with
Ubuntu/GNOME, and Florian suggested that I share them with the list...
so here they are. Feel free to criticise, discard, etc! If anyone thinks
any of them are any good, I can add them to the spec on the Ubuntu wiki.
Apologies in advance for the length of this message!
First, a couple of minor, obvious suggestions:
- Greater presence in the documentation, including tours, introductory
guides, etc.
- Greater presence in tooltips. When you start your media player for the
first time, it would be nice to get a message saying something like 'Did
you know that Ubuntu has a built in media center, which lets you...?'
And then, what is for me, *the* major issue. Specifically, how should
switching into and out of Elisa be handled? The thing here is that Elisa
is quite different from other desktop applications - it has a very
different kind of GUI, which doesn't have any of the usual menus or
widgets, and it operates in fullscreen mode most of the time. As a
result, the usual ways of integrating an application into the desktop
environment (window borders, task lists applets, maximising, minimising,
etc) aren't very appropriate.
My preference, therefore, would be to exclude Elisa from all the usual
window management features, and to come up with a totally alternative
set of solutions to desktop integration (I'm being deliberately
argumentative, here!). Here, instead of utilising an
application-as-window metaphor, you could use an
application-as-environment metaphor - Elisa would be communicated as an
alternative to the usual GNOME desktop. You'd have to do a few
potentially controversial things to achieve this:
- Don't allow Elisa to leave full screen
- Exclude Elisa from window list applets, etc
- Don't put Elisa in the applications menu (I'm not sure whether this is
absolutely necessary, but it logically follows the argument)
Then you'd need some alternative ways to switch into and out of Elisa.
Here's a selection (some of which have already been suggested):
- Hot and media keys
- A panel applet/tray icon (I'm not sure about this one, it's just an idea)
- Integration with multiple desktops - so Elisa becomes one desktop
(again, just an idea)
- The opportunity to enter the Elisa environment from the GNOME login
prompt - a 'Media Centre Session'
- Remote control activation - so if you hit a button on your remote,
Elisa automatically springs to life
- Gnome-Do activation
You'd also want to do as much as possible to suggest to the user that
Elisa isn't an application and that it is in fact an alternative
environment in its own right. This could include:
- The Elisa session GNOME login option (which has already been mentioned)
- A snazzy animation for switching in and out of Elisa - something which
suggests 'this is an alternative environment'
- Fast, smooth, and seamless switching into and out of Elisa. Load time
is something that is associated with applications. Environments are
'just there'. I don't know whether this would merit having
Elisa/Pigment constantly running in the background, but it's something
to consider.
So that's my major suggestion - ditch the window metaphor. How that is
achieved, and how it is implemented is the tricky part. ;)
Allan
Florian Boucault wrote:
Hi everyone,
Two Elisa developers (Alessandro and myself) were in Prague for the
Ubuntu Developer Summit [1] in order to get a feeling of what is going
to be the next Ubuntu, the Intrepid Ibex, and discuss with Ubuntu
developers the need that users feel for a default media center solution.
A lot of people were quite interested in the idea notably developers
focused on user experience, the Ubuntu Mobile team, contributors to
Mythbuntu and generally users.
A list of ideas on how to integrate better Elisa in the Ubuntu desktop
was laid out and we would now like to follow up on it. They have been
added to the corresponding Ubuntu specification [2] and everyone is of
course more than welcome to contribute. The plan is to get to
implementing as soon as possible to meet the next Ubuntu.
Have a nice day,
Florian
[1] http://www.ubuntu.com/news/spotlight/uds
[2] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ElisaUbuntuIntegrationSpec
