[ge-talk] Feedback on R2 Deskbar Mockup

[Michael Phipps]

Brian Hague wrote:
> Ari Haviv,
> The zSnake is a way of traversing the file structure, if you right click on
> a drive, then you can traverse without double clicking on folders...
> 
> Michael Phipps,
> 
> Would it be more useful if we changed to text with an icon (like what is
> seen on tracker?) as default? should we make it so the icons can be changed
> on the deskbar by the user? That is good insight...

That would be better.

> The lack of wasted space is to make a "friendly" interface to beginners,
> While allowing geeks like us to get the information we need quickly.
> 
> Actually the Red in the menu is to show the program is not responding (and
> therefore crashed), the X in the menu on the crashed application is for
> killing the application (instead of vulcan-death-gripping-the-ctrl-alt-del
> then hunting on what app failed) It's kinda like melding the application
> manager with the deskbar.

How do you tell if a program is not responding?

> I'll see if I can come up with a better solution other than sideways text.

Good! :-D

> Deskbar icons? what deskbar icons... oh yeah... those... hrm... next 
> mockup?

:-) Looking forward to it.

> Actually the scrollbar is up against the edge of the screen, but you can 
> use
> the scroll wheel to scroll through the applications as well (should be
> smooth animated).

Good use of Fitt's Law.

>> The colors are kind of ugly, but I assume that is part of working in 
>> paint.
> 16.7 million colors, and I pick the ugliest... That's what I get for using
> the default set of colors. Just because it's beautiful in Hex doesn't mean
> it's beautiful in RGB... Thanks M$
> The idea is to have the colors changeable... do we have gradient/alpha
> blending?

I think so.

> Everyone I know (in the windows world at least) likes to keep icons in a
> certain order. for an example, there is a woman in our company who likes to
> keep outlook first, then word, then excel, then our in house POS .net
> software. If outlook crashes, then she shuts everything down, and starts
> back up. So she goes hunting for the icons in the most recently used
> applications (sometimes it's not there...) then she calls the helpdesk to
> figure out where it is (start... click... all programs... click... 
> microsoft
> office... click... word... click)... I'm glad I'm not on the helpdesk. Most
> users only use a small handfull of applications "all of the time". If she
> could put (in the right order) Outlook, Word, Excel, and the POS .net 
> app...
> on the taskbar, and not waste any more space (like quicklaunch, which she
> gets confused with) then she would be set.

Sounds like her start menu organization is the real problem.

> Another idea is to blend the color of the deskbar to the non-running
> programs so they don't have a border, just the icon sitting on the deskbar
> without a background (showing the user that it's dormant) then use the grey
> background to show the running application. I haven't quite decided... and
> that's why I need some feedback...

I can't picture that, ATM. Fire up paint... :-)

> The zsnake is there to traverse the file structure... there are a few
> changes... listed in the posts... mainly the timing, and duration of the
> submenus.

I understand that it is there to traverse the file structure. I don't 
understand why it should be there. That is, why is that better than using 
tracker windows?

> Thanks 1,000,000

Thank you!

Michael