Task Launcher - mockups

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Wednesday, January 30, 2013 19:00:45 Thomas Pfeiffer wrote:
> I'm very curious what you think about this approach, so comment away! :)

the idea of integrating it with the launcher is really promising (though we 
obviously still don't know for sure yet if it will work when all things are 
finally considered .. isn't design fun? :)

i'm not sold on the vertical columns, though i think they hint at interesting 
possibilities.

cons:
	* if i want to change a setting or create a document or go to a web page, 
i need to decide which category it belongs to first. so i have to go "one step 
back" and understand the designer's decisions before movign forward. this is 
the same problem we have in the desktop system settings and it isn't good.
	* a grid means i have to navigate first horizontally and then vertically 
with my eyes and attention. this takes more effort than scanning a single body 
or direction. even a non-structured grid feels easier.
	* it becomes less obvious how to elegantly integrate search results
	* it doesn't blend with any other part of Active's design, as Marco 
pointed out

however, the segmentation is interesting, i think. we could definitely arrange 
the entries in the current grid style grouped by type .. e.g.

create browse browse browse browse
message message play play play play
manage manage

(where each of the words above is an icon :)

we could even provide some visual hints for the grouping, such a background 
colouring/hinting. that may, however, be more distracting than helpful.

as for having a single Create icon at the front of the list, if it is fast 
enough and when pressed shifts the the launchers off screen, replaced with the 
creation options, it should not feel overly heavy. it means one more tap, but 
muscle memory for that will build very quickly if given a good position (e.g. 
first). the key would be a fast shift-out-the-old-and-populate-the-new-entries. 
i can imagine the launch list sliding off to the left and a new grid showing 
the create options sliding in.

this would also have the benefit of allowing us to create the Create entries on 
demand (meaning no impact on startup time and no impact on memory footprint 
until in use; and better than a full external application)

still not wholely formed, but maybe edging somewhere useful.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 198 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part.
URL: <http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/active/attachments/20130131/0cc0a16d/attachment.sig>