On Sun, 2005-06-05 at 01:30 -0500, Jesse Ross wrote: > > Third is the shelf. shelf is a container for objects. One can hide it > > or > > extend it to have more visible objetcs. Shelf should not contain > > scroller. If I want to see more objects, I drag it farther to the > > screen. I do not have scollers in my drawer :) > > Sorry, one other thing. If we're going to have a tabbed shelf, let's > put the tabs on the bottom, so we have a bigger hit area. Having them > on the top is like using Windows-style menus. (I know, I know. These > sketches were not meant to be the authoritative Etoile Desktop design. > Still... just something I thought we should take into consideration... > :) >
I do not think that it is good idea to put tabs at the bottom. Why? The shelf has two areas: tab area and content area. The content area is the one what is going to be used more frequently therefore it should be more accessible than tabs. Having icons near the border makes them easier to hit. I need to hit icons more than tabs. For example think of an "inventory" shelf tab and lots of D&D operations between shelf and window, or consider "prototype" or "templates" shelf tab when putting lots of new objects into the document. In this case you would need icons to be more accessible. Switching tabs is secondary. Also tabs can serve as "dragging ears" of the shelf. I can not imagine how the dragging would be done with tabs at the bottom. Similar problem is with expandable shelf, where you change the size by dragging the tabs. You will expand the shelf while keeping the tabs at the bottom? That would look strange as the shelf would emerge from a line between tabs and desktop. Stefan Urbanek -- http://stefan.agentfarms.net First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. - Mahatma Gandhi
