Partially hidden launcher

[Jeff Hanson]

> From: Erlan Sergaziev <erlan.sergaziev at gmail.com>
> To: ubuntu-devel-discuss at lists.ubuntu.com
> Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:58:08 +0600
> Subject: Partially hidden launcher
> Hi everyone,
>
> I would like to suggest a new way of handling launcher auto-hide.
> First, some reasons:
> 1) When the launcher is hidden, the user is unable to quickly switch/launch applications (so it's a regression for many against old-style taskbar panel) and also misses the benefits of seeing launcher badges.
> 2) When the launcher is always on, it steals some pixels and makes the interface cluttered.
>
> Therefore, I'd like to propose that the launcher is partially hidden (about 1/3rd of full width of app's icon) and then rolls out to full width if the user hovers over it with a delay.
> This way the user gets the following benefits:
> 1) Much less horizontal space stolen, yet the icons are still recognizable and the user can quickly point and click to launch/switch.
> 2) The space potentially can fit a minimal version of a badge. E.g., the full badge for an email app should have two parts, the count and a small envelope. When the launcher is partially hidden, the count gets hidden but the envelope stays. Another way would be to change color/highlight of the icon.
> 3) It is consistent with the notion of new style scrollbars in Unity.
> 4) For some users constant hide/autohide is irritating, so they might choose to have the launcher always partially hidden.
>
> Attached are mockups, please excuse their bad quality, but you'll get the idea.
>
> What do you think?
>

I like your idea.  Very practical.  Icons could be auto-scaled,
especially if they are SVG.