RE: [libreoffice-design] New Design and experience

-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Howard [mailto:imagin8or@gmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, June 12, 2011 9:18 AM
To: design@global.libreoffice.org
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-design] New Design and experience

> Search: useful for finding less common functionality, but not for common actions. One searches for 
> information, 
> rather than for a tool, and most people don't know that there's a tool for what they're trying to 
> do, so they won't even 
> think to search for it. However, combining search with a search-as-you-type engine that can 
> autocomplete/suggest 
> tools would allow those who know the name of the tool to get it with a few characters. A search 
> box at the top of the 
> screen is not context-sensitive, though, so they could be searching for a tool, or for a word in 
> the document, or for how 
> to view documents side-by-side. Re: the bold example, recently found tools could be added to a 
> recent tools bar, with a 
> little animation. That way the user now has a button to perform the action on the appropriate 
> chunk of text/cells/object.

I agree. While a great feature, there are a few use cases that need to be resolved. For example, I 
would suggest that a 
searched command button populate below the search box to be used by the user; that way, we side 
step issues of
guessing what the user intended to do.

> Tabs: Look fantastic! In Outlook 2007, you can view two calendars side by side by clicking a -> 
> button on the tab. In 
> VS2008 you can right-click the tab and make a new tab group. Personally, I prefer the -> button as 
> it's more discoverable.

Simply +1

> Left/right toolbars: Also excellent. Even 4:3 monitors end up with load of whitespace to the sides 
> as documents are far 
> longer than they are wide. For spreadsheets, however, the reverse is often true. Presentations are 
> even worse, because 
> they are the same shape as the screen, but you could be editing a 16:9 slide on a 4:3 screen, etc. 
> I think the key is to minimise 
> the amount of stuff we actually present to the user; everyone runs out of screen space sometimes, 
> particularly when
> viewing things side-by-side, transcribing, opening emails, etc.

I feel that the Calc/Excel example could go many ways. Depending on how the columns and rows are 
used, vertical and/or 
horizontal space could be important. Unfortunately, your UI must go somewhere. To help reduce this 
issue, you can have an
auto-hide button that would remove the toolbar from view until the mouse is hovered over the 
toolbar area. Just a thought. 

> One dock I would love to see is a copy/paste dock, showing recently copied items as well as the 
> straightforward 
> Copy/Paste/Paste special, and also automatic creation of common Paste Special links. Having said 
> that, Word 2007's post-paste
> context dropdown that lets you modify the paste after the fact is brilliant, because it's usually 
> at that moment that you realize
> you wanted to paste it differently. The paste dock could let you select something to paste and 
> then optionally preview the
> different paste specials by rolling over them.

Simply +1

> Context menus: I would like paragraphs to get translucent handles that can be clicked/hovered over 
> to change the paragraph 
> options (mockup http://www.things.org.uk/examples/mockup_context_drawers.png , inkscape .svg there 
> too). That 
> dispenses with the paragraph dialog.Repeat for images, etc. In a spreadsheet, Calc could recognise 
> an ad-hoc table or the
> current selection and provide a similar handle to perform actions on the block. The more we can 
> make context-sensitive and 
> non-modal interfaces, the better prepared LO becomes for multi-user multi-touch interfaces; one 
> user can select some 
> shapes in one corner and perform a union while another user edits some text elsewhere. Because 
> there are no dialogs, there
> is no focus/mode fight between the different users.

Simply +1

Daniel Merker
Computer Engineering Graduate Student
Wayne State University

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