I’ve banged on in the past about usability quite a bit – it’s something that crosses my mind every now and then. I was listening earlier today to S2E22 of LUGRadio, where they have an interview with the writer of Symphony OS and it stirred it all up again.
And thus I thought about the following idea for a desktop interface:
The idea revolves around the idea of a tabbed interface. Those of use who are using Firefox (and if not, why not?) or Lotus Notes (shudder) will be well used to this kind of interface. In additional, pretty much everyone uses a kind of tabbed interface that is the taskbar in Windows, MacOS, KDE and GNOME. And so it got me thinking:
- Virtual Desktops occupy a tabbed interface at the top of the screen
- Applications occupy a tabbed interface on the 3rd ‘line’ of the screen, but with functionality slightly more like the window title bar (see below)
- The “desktop” as we know it occupies one of the tabs, rather than being ‘behind’ everything
- The 2nd line is taken up with a launch text input (autocomplete with programs as you type), and other launch icons
- The Start menu is replaced by a button on the second line that brings up an extra set of ‘tabs’ that are drop-down menus of programs
- The system tray should probably go somewhere, not decided where yet
While this may sound a little cluttered at the top of the screen, I still think that the tabbed interface has definite advantages, and removing the desktop into a tab means that it is much more easily accessible.
I’ll try and put up some demo-type screenshots once I get something GIMPed together.
mrBen
Sounds an interesting idea, though it would be easier with a visual representation
However, does this hold an advantage over, say, being able to scroll through your virtual desktops in GNOME, (which is pretty much which you can also do in Firefox)?
Some screenshots would be good, as you and Noelinho note.
It does sound like you’ve reinvented Sidekick or any of the other “application-switcher” TSRs there used to be for DOS, mind.
(why is email address required?)
I’ll get something up ASAP.
Not sure why emails are required – default setup I expect – I’m not sure it helps with spam. Is it a big problem? If so I can disable it.
You should be able to knock up a demo in Flash pretty easy, right? In fact, a PowerPoint or Impress presentation could probably do something similar. It’s not like it needs to actually work, just appear as if it does. Some hotspots and cunning tricks are all it takes to demo your idea. I’d do it myself if I didn’t have to watch Zoolander with my wife tonight (which I’m quite happy to do after a boring day at work).
And I let Jedimoose store cookies (one of the few privileged sites) so the email thing is no problem.
I like the ‘sound’ of it so far. Can’t wait to see the mockup! I have something for you to check out as well. Be sure to check your e-mail.
re wordpress & email: I would think that requiring an email addy would discourage comment spam. Not sure why else this would be WordPress’s default.
This is a cool idea, I like it. In this scenario, the “Desktop” is more a visual representation of your local “favorites”, both files and applications, rather than a work surface; which is basically what it is in practical use anyways, to no one would lose functionality.