Task Launcher - mockups

[Björn Balazs]

Am Mittwoch, 30. Januar 2013, 19:00:45 schrieb Thomas Pfeiffer:
> On Wednesday 30 January 2013 08:51:09 Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> > On Tuesday, January 29, 2013 21:45:18 Marco Martin wrote:
> > > On Tuesday 29 January 2013, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> > > > pros:
> > > > * it means every new thing created will be associated with 
that
> > > > activity
> > > > by
> > > > default
> > > > * it means i don't have to have to pull down the launch and 
start a
> > > > different app to get to this functionality
> > > > 
> > > > as a wild thought: would it work at all to have a "create" 
button
> > > > between
> > > > "+" and "configure"?
> > > 
> > > hm, another button would probably be quite redundant, and not 
very clear
> > > the difference...
> > 
> > yes, i struggled with that as well.
> > 
> > > I think i would prefer starting this kind of actions from the 
top menu,
> > > that doesn't *have* to be the list of all applications as now 
btw.
> > > It may even have just icons to browsers (files, books, web, 
images..)
> > > and
> > > a
> > > launcher for the start task ui (applications that can't really 
be melted
> > > in
> > > a task, such as games may be listed in a "category" of tasks)
> > 
> > this got me to thinking if we could make even more use of the 
Launch area.
> > it's where you "start" stuff, so "starting something new" makes 
sense up
> > there ... but perhaps instead of starting a new application 
(making it
> > also
> > feel heavy in a different way), if selecting a "create" entry 
could cause
> > the launch icons to slide away and be replaced by the options of 
things
> > you
> > can create. iow, integrate the "create" interface into the 
Launch.
> > 
> > i also like the idea (if i read your email properly anyways ;) of
> > providing
> > a clearer visual separation between content browsers and other
> > applications.
> > 
> > if we were to go that route, when we get to creating the "create"
> > application, it may be a nice opportunity to revisit the Launch 
area and
> > see if there are any small (non-complexity-increasing :) 
improvements we
> > can make there.
> > 
> > the more i think about having "create" in the Launch area, the 
more i like
> > it, btw :) it feels .. like the right place.
> 
> I know it's easy to say that now ex post facto, but I imagined 
putting a
> task starting interface in the Launch area at a later point all 
along (as I
> mentioned in the thread-starter mail, my idea would only have 
worked for
> file creation tasks anyway), and your ideas made me come up with 
something
> even more radical: Why not turn the whole Launch area into a task-
starter?
> I love the idea of a task description grammar Aaron brought up in 
our last
> meeting, so I thought "Why not turning all launchers into actions?"
> 
> Attached you'll see my idea for a new task-centric Launch area, in 
which
> everything is a task, and the categories are verbs (see "select 
task.png").
> Each list would be flickable vertically (I know, this conflicts 
with
> flicking the whole Launch up, but I don't think this would be too 
much of a
> problem since I guess users are more likely to flick from from the 
Peek or
> Top Bar anyway). If there are more categories than fit on the 
screen, the
> categories could be scrolled horizontally.
> 
> The idea is that if a task involves more than one step to specify 
or is
> actually a group of tasks (the ones with the ellipses at the end), 
after it
> is tapped the whole area morphs into the column design of the Add 
Ons store
> (see "specify task.png") with one column for each step (hat tip to 
Marco
> for that idea). Ideally we would always stay in the sentence 
construction
> metaphor, but I'm not sure if it works (I was too lazy to try 
fitting my
> example tasks into this scheme).
> 
> Directly starting with the column layout would make the whole thing 
more
> consistent (and easier to implement), but I think it would be 
annoying to
> insert another category selection step into one-step tasks, so I'd 
prefer
> making better use of available screenspace by displaying several 
categories
> in the first step.
> 
> Of course there can be more than one task associated to an 
application,
> possibly even in different categories (e.g. "Browse calendar", 
"Create
> event" and "Manage calendars" are all accomplished using Calendar).
> 
> I think this approach would reflect our move from app-centric to
> task-centric design in a very consequent way and therefore I'd 
strongly
> prefer it over a mix of task and classical application launchers. 
Plus, it
> would fit the name "Plasma Active" well, because you select 
actions, not
> names.
> 
> Final remark: I don't think this should be the only point to start 
a task
> from. Users should should be able to  start a task from wherever it 
makes
> sense, for example starting a contact-related task from a contact's 
context
> menu. And that's why I thought it might make sense to also add 
starters for
> file creation tasks to the Add Items dialog.
> If that feels too wrong for you guys, I think I'd be fine with 
limiting file
> creation to the main task launcher, though.
> 
> I'm very curious what you think about this approach, so comment 
away! :)

This rocks!

I wonder how many verbs would we need to provide a sufficient set of 
task starters?

Some ideas for potential improvements:

- Browse -> Perhaps better (or additionally?) Find... ?

- Contact -> I do not like the technical approach on the next level. 
It is about whom you contact not how. If a friend is only available 
via one certain chat protocol, then I use it.

- We could add a category 'Start...' with a list of traditional 
applications.

I really have to sleep over the ideas - so expect more comments from 
me to come. Please keep attaching the pencil files - makes life 
easier ;)

Cheers,
Björn

-- 
Dipl.-Psych. Björn Balazs
Business Management & Research
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