GNOME Dialogs

We all know how distractive dialogs can get. They just pop out of no where in your face, they even scare me some times.

I propose that dialogs open inside an app's window and use some other way of getting a users attention i.e. via the task bar. When a Dialog opens inside the app, it can reuse that app's tool and menu bar.

I had created this mockup for project Topaz but there's no reason why it cannot be implemented in GNOME 2.xx, so these are GNOME 2.xx mockups.

Here's our text editor. Usual icons, an unusual menu bar but this isn't about that. This is about dialogs in GNOME. (Title bars are not shown so just imagine them there).

Dialogs just slide out from the top of the app (just below the tool and menu bar). Below, the "open file" dialog has been opened. It slides down from under the tool and menu bar and then reuses the tool and menu bar to put its stuff on.

Dialogs stack infront of one another. When a new dialog is stacked infront of another the dialog at the back is shaded out.

The advantages of these dialogs are:

• Dialogs don't just pop up in your face.
• Since they always slide from the top, they are predictable i.e. they don't just pop up at the bottom of the screen or on the left of the screen, etc
• There's very little mouse movement when there's many dialogs one after another because they slide ontop of one another.
• We can reuse the app's tool and menu bar.

The disadvantage of these dialogs is:

• You will not see a dialog for apps/windows at the back, but then again that's the idea, right!

Discussion

• "Unsual icons, an unusual menu bar but this isn't about that": So, if you just leave that out of the document then you'll get your point across better. murrayc
• Isn't this just "Let's have dialogs like in MacOS X"? murrayc
• I like the idea. The popups block the current app but don't get in the way and block any others. What will happen when the popup is larger than the underlying window though?