I love that mockup. On Thu, 2009-04-16 at 12:03 +1000, Michael Ralston wrote: > I posted a page to the artwork wiki about a month ago about some ideas > I had for netbook launcher. Thorsten since deleted it while he was > cleaning up the wiki, but never mind. I'll repost the text of the page > here for those who haven't seen it. > > Explanation > ========== > I'm currently studying a course in User Interface Design at Newcastle > University. I am required to design, implement and evaluate a user > interface. I also currently use Ubuntu Netbook Remix, and Netbook > Launcher on my desktop. I would like to contribute to the evolution of > Netbook Launcher via my User Interface Design course. > > The text below is from the project proposal for my user interface > course, and some of it is redundant to somebody that already has an > understanding of how Netbook Launcher works. The design is also > influenced by Mayanna / Gimmie and Long_Term_Vision. > > Problem > ======= > The user interface of most major operating systems displays the icons > and names of the applications installed on the computer. This requires > that the user learn the purpose of each application so that they may > perform the tasks they require. A more natural approach would be to > choose from a list of tasks, which then opens the relevant > application. For example the task of writing a letter could open the > word processor with a letter template. > > Most major operating systems allow users to store their documents, > images, music and other files in a directory structure. Users may > store everything in the one directory, or use a hierarchy, but either > way it eventually becomes cumbersome to find and open the file a user > needs. The application launcher should provide a more convenient way > of accessing user's documents. > > User activities are increasingly more web oriented. The process of > opening a web browser, and then navigating to the required web page is > slow and inefficient. Many websites can now be considered applications > themselves and deserve this acknowledgement as a task in the > application launcher. People are also more commonly using their > computer for communicating with family and friends. An application > launcher should provide a facility for initiating communications with > a users contacts, whether they be in Gmail, Windows Messenger or > Facebook for example. > > Solution > ======== > The interface will contain tabs for the categories: system, tasks, > documents, contacts. Each tab will display customized options relevant > to the category selected, including recently used options. The > interface will also provide a text entry box for searching for > applications, tasks, documents and contacts. This box will have > keyboard focus when the application launcher is visible. After > entering text into this box, search results will be displayed in the > main area of the application. This combination will allow the user to > quickly locate the tasks, documents and contacts that they wish to > use. > > Attached is an initial mockup, you can also view the progress at: > http://sites.google.com/a/ralston.id.au/netbook-launcher-ideas/ > > > -- Michael
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