Remember, I recommend that we have Zoom In and Zoom Out keys too.
Maybe we don't even need Zoom In and Zoom Out hotspots. The Zoom In
and Zoom Out keys should do a full jump from Project to Project or
Project to Document. Maybe Shift-Zoom In and Shift-Zoom Out zoom by a
smaller increment... maybe 10% of a regular Zoom In or Zoom Out.
Sorry to reply to myself, but I realized something about how the Zoom
In or Zoom Out would work, based on how I detailed it in the FogVision
mockups here:
http://dromasoftware.com/etoile/mediawiki/index.php?
title=Precognitive_FAQ
Zoom In and Zoom Out should zoom by a user-specified amount, otherwise
it defaults to 25% between Projects, meaning that it would take four
key presses to zoom from one Project taking up the full desktop to
another Project taking up the full desktop. Or, the user can just hold
down Zoom In or Zoom Out and have it autorepeat, acting much like Archy
and following the mouse position as the centering point:
http://rchi.raskincenter.org/aboutarchy/img/zoomdemo.swf (8MB)
I would suggest then that highlighting a Project (single click) and
pressing the Zoom In key zooms into that Project so that it fills 100%
of the desktop, bypassing the 4 key presses it would normally take.
Highlighting a Document and pressing Zoom In would make that Document
take up either 90% of the height or 90% of the width, whichever is
smaller and would thus allow for the full Document to be viewable.
What this format also allows is for easy transfer of documents from one
Project to another, since Projects aren't just all (100% full desktop)
or nothing (fully zoomed out preview). I would suggest that as long as
a Project is >= 25% of full desktop mode, it's contents should be able
to be manipulated independently of the whole Project. We'll probably
have to do some user testing to make sure that provides for a large
enough hit target, but that's my idea off the top. Of course, the Shelf
as a temporary transfer location is still viable.
J.
