Re: [Usability] spatial desktop

[Ritesh Khadgaray <khadgaray gmail com>]

On Thu, 2006-08-24 at 02:30 +0300, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
> On Aug 23, 2006, at 4:50 PM, Ritesh Khadgaray wrote:
> > ...
> > random thoughts from my mind
> >
> > Totem is a video player, and can be made spatial
> >  - remember window position, time, state ( play/pause...) .
> 
> None of those are anything to do with a spatial interface; they're just 
> good manners. (Except the part about automatically resuming playback, 
It would be preferable to remember time in a video file, as i often have
tons of video tutorial which i watch in bits and pieces as i often have
to cross-reference.

totem to my current knowledge use a single window for all video, hence i
end up using mplayer + totem combo.

/me i might be unique in this regard.

> which is probably inappropriate if Totem starts when you log in.)
gnome has a option for save session , which should be a good fit for
this.


> 
> A spatial interface is about finding things based on where they are. 
> Having items stay where you left them is an important part of this, but 
> only one part. Another is having each item appear only in one place, 
> unless obviously advertised as a shortcut (for example, search folders 
> should look very different from normal folders). Another is for 
> different objects to look different from each other (for example, 
> different documents should not have the same icon). Another is for the 
I tend to use different emblems, for certain documents and folder.
Changing the icon confuses me a bit, about the document type.

> number of things you are navigating to be small enough or the display 
> to be sophisticated enough (which is why spatial interfaces are popular 
> in VR worlds, and why a spatial interface is good for folders with few 
> items but poor for large things like music collections).

Agreed, certain application work better without spatial metaphor
clutter.

> 
> So whether a spatial interface is appropriate depends on the 
> application. An interesting juxtaposition of the two is in Aperture, 
> which uses a non-spatial interface for a photographer's overall 
> library, and a spatial interface for groups of photos.
> <http://urlx.org/apple.com/20b5d>
> 
> > Image viewer can have a spatial mode ( a gconf key ? to remember this )
> 
> What would that do?
> 
> > Documents viewer ( pdf ) can remember there setting per document basis.
> >
> > Text editor - already have an example.
> >
> > Additionally, we can associate an application to a particular document
> > only ( not document type )
> > ...
> 
> Those should happen anyway, and they aren't really anything to do with 
> a spatial interface either.
rather than each application having a spatial mode option, why not use a
common setting in gconf "/desktop/gnome/interface/spatial"

> 
> Cheers
-- 
Ritesh Khadgaray
LinuX N Stuff
Ph: +919822394463
Eat Right, Exercise, Die Anyway.