Re: UI Mockup

[Jürg Billeter <j bitron ch>]

On Son, 2004-06-06 at 12:33, ethan zimmerman wrote:
> I've just created a mockup of a new UI of the browser.
> http://www.ethanzimmerman.com/images/new_nautilus.png
> 
> I really think this would be a great improvement over the current
> browser and I think it would coexist well with the spatial method too.
> Also it is *very* similar to the new file selector which would make
> things seem a bit more uniform (I think).

As it is, I don't really like the proposed UI; I see no reason to remove
the toolbar and the location bar from the browser window, they realy
belong to the file _browser_. Though there are things from the file
chooser / your mockup which could possibly improve the current browser
interface.

One affects the tree side bar. It currently has root nodes for the Home
Folder, for the Filesystem and for mounted volumes. The main missing
items IMO are bookmarks. Probably the best thing to do is to use exactly
the same structure as in the file chooser with the difference that they
aren't just shortcuts but root nodes. I'd include the add and remove
ability (perhaps in a context menu instead of/additionally to the
buttons) and of course we should use the same set of bookmarks for the
file chooser and nautilus browser mode, i.e., the browser's bookmarks
menu should have the same content, too; perhaps they should even be
added to the spatial's places menu, don't know.

I think the finder bar could be very useful in browser mode as it is a
very efficient tool, especially when the tree side bar isn't open; the
problem is though that there are perhaps too many bars when that's
implemented (menu, tool, location, finder...). So, perhaps it's better
to add the folder popup applet from the spatial mode to the status bar.
In browser mode it could be slightly extended, so that subfolders are
shown (not all subfolders of the current folder of course but in the
same way as subfolders are shown in the file chooser's finder bar).

If there is a consensus I can possibly try to implement these changes,
or at least the tree one.

Jürg