[RFC] New (QML) Desktop Containment

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Thursday, November 22, 2012 13:05:05 Sebastian Kügler wrote:
> The idea is to make locked mode the default, and encourage that. I agree

something that occurred to me after thinking about this a bit more is that i 
think we are stuck in a solution-problem loop. 

let's define some goals:

0. UI modes suck and we want to avoid them
1. using the system should be done through direct manipulation and require few 
steps (the "organic and elegant" principle)
2. we want it to look pretty and have as little visual noise as possible
3. the system should be trustworthy and predictable (related concepts)

so .. we have the original (and current) solution on the desktop layer -> 
applet handles.

this fulfills 0 and 1. it is borderline for 2. for 3, people can move things 
around easily, and this leads some people to accidentally do things they don't 
want to.

so the current solution addresses 2 issues, isn't great on 1 and may 
transgress another.

the proposal then becomes to fix the current solution with a specific solution 
that reduces visual noise in the default (by introducing higher modality; it 
also increases visual noise elsewhere) and might improve trust/predictability.

this solution transgresses goals 0 and 1.

so as soon as we have that solution, we'll be back to fixing 0 and 1. perhaps 
with something that once again creates problems with the other goals.

round and round we go, screwing with (in this case) the default desktop layout 
and never quite achieving something "great" but only "better in different ways, 
worse in others".

so ... assuming that i'm reading this even halfway correct, a few things need 
to be done before we can usefully contemplate solutions that will result in 
improvements we can all agree are worthwhile:

* understand the common goals; unless all those participating in design 
understand and agree on the goals, we'll simply have competing solution 
propositions that will be unnacceptable to some

* prioritize the goals. often, not all goals are equal. if we have to choose 
between any of the above goals, which would we pick?

there are processes that can be done to work towards accomplishing both of the 
above.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
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