UI Design - add resource window more gesture oriented

[Fania Bremmer]

Hi there,

While I am documenting the UI Design for Plasma Active, I came to the 
point to have a closer look at the add resource window.

For me it has currently a very "oldschool" interaction, as known from 
the pc with a mouse. Marco and I had already discussions about how to 
make it more touch-friendly and easier in interaction.

I made up my mind and designed the following ideas (maybe not for 
version 1.0, but the next relases will follow soon :) ...). Please 
consider the following screens as wireframes, not as final design 
specifications.

http://share.basyskom.com/contour/UIDesign/1-addResource_window.jpg
#1: The Add content window (wording "content" sounds better then "items" 
in my opinion):
Here the user can either search for content (like it works already now) 
and/or select categories (a dropdown instead the current icons, that 
rather confuse then show the filtering function).
Underneath nepomuk already delivers best hits, that is content that is 
already related to the current activity and shows the first 20something 
resources based on that recommendation. As soon as the user inserts 
something in search or dropdown, the content changes of course.

http://share.basyskom.com/contour/UIDesign/2-addResource_select.jpg
#2: Selection works like in the current development with single touch, 
the selected file gets a highlight.

http://share.basyskom.com/contour/UIDesign/3-addResource_dragndrop.jpg
#3: Now I start dreaming :) Instead of an add-button, the user simply 
drags the selected content into the activity area behind the window. The 
background area gets a highlight color as soon as the fingers reach a 
dropzone. If the user releases here, the new resources are loaded in its 
boxes. If the user releases within the add-content-window, nothing 
happens. If the user simply touchs in the background, the window closes 
(=cancel).

http://share.basyskom.com/contour/UIDesign/4-addResource_multiselect.jpg
#4: still dreaming :) Multiselection could also be done with a two 
fingers gesture: indicate start point with the press of the first 
finger, stay there and move the second finger over the surface withouth 
loosing contact to select all items laying in between. This would be a 
nice feature if I want to select a big amount of data, lets say all my 
last vacation pics...

I would love to see our development become more and more gesture 
oriented - I think we already have cool features like the dragging from 
the status bar and the wheely movement of our switcher... but maybe 
there is even more potential. Would be a nice topic for next weeks 
workshop, what do you think?

Greets,
Fania