Forwarded to the mailing-list instead of just me so please use the reply-all button in this message. I'll read it later.
With metta, Chris ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "strav" <mathieu.belivea...@gmail.com> Date: Apr 11, 2012 8:19 AM Subject: switching amongst application instances from the unity panel is ineffective (some suggestions on how it could be fixed/improved) To: "Chris Druif" <cyber.dr...@gmail.com> Hi there! First, my apologies if this has been discussed before. I believe that there is much space for improvement concerning the use case in which a user tries to switch between multiple instances of an application via unity's task management panel and in my opinion, the main reason for this is how the exposé-like feature it uses is actually implemented (duct taped?). Here are what I perceive to be the main flaws of the current implementation (I will use "exposé" to refer to the exposé-like state you get when double clicking on an application icon in order to select amongst it's opened instances): 1. In many cases the mapping exposé does between your applications' windows and their position in the exposé view, although this mapping is partially based on it's the initial window's position on the screen, is really not easy to trace. Not knowing where your application instance will be located in the exposé's view, you're forced have to scan through all the application's windows to retrieve it. Hence, the following improvement proposition: the placement of windows in the exposé view should be linear, from left to right, top to bottom, based on the time that window was opened and it should not change unless you have closed one instance of your application. This way, it'll always be straightforward to pick the application instance you had in mind. 2. When you need to scan all the windows in the exposé view, it's good to have a zoomed out view of your application to quickly identify it but in many case, your application's content might be too similar to another opened instance to correctly distinguish between them from a zoomed out perspective. Hence: placing a legible window title above the actual zoomed out window should be default (with perhaps the option to disable this). 3. The way the zoomed out windows are placed in the exposé's view involves way too much mouse movement. This is, in my opinion, due to 2 things: 3.1. The zoom factor by which windows instances are zoomed out, is set in relation to their number (for only two windows open, this is where the most mouse movement occurs and this is absurd). I believe that to prevent this, the zoom factor should remain constant except when you just have too many instances for your screen. 3.2. The window's placement itself. The windows are just too far to be quickly reached. Hence, the windows' placement should begin just at right of the application's icon you just clicked and be layed out from left to right, top to bottom. I'd be glad to hear your opinions about this. Thanks, Mathieu -- This message was sent from Launchpad by strav (https://launchpad.net/~essorcreations) to each member of the Ayatana Discussion team using the "Contact this team" link on the Ayatana Discussion team page (https://launchpad.net/~unity-design). For more information see https://help.launchpad.net/YourAccount/ContactingPeople
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