Partially hidden launcher - updated mockup 3d shelf

[Erlan Sergaziev]

I updated the mockup so it looks like a 3d shelf.
As before, hovering over the shelf for a period of time makes the icons
slide out of their compartments.

This lets one interesting new way to add favorite applications - click and
hold on an empty compartment and the applications lens should appear to drag
the desired application to a compartment.

Of course, the mockup would benefit from someone with better artistic skills
:)


On Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 18:58, Erlan Sergaziev <erlan.sergaziev at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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?
>
> Erlan
>
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