Notes About Current Desktop Usage

Identified problems

Working with multiple windows is difficult
- too many windows makes it hard to find the window you're looking for
- current window list takes up a lot of space when it gets long
- switching focus to choosing a window from the list forced user to remove focus from task/activity
Workspaces are powerful but not intuitive
- power users use them
- used to group a conceptual grouping of windows
- Compiz cube allowed novice users to understand the concept and make use of it
Launching applications is too hard
- applications menu not well adapted for launching
- takes too long to find one item
- some people use launchers (how to create one?), some use GNOME Do, some use the run dialog
Current panel lacks
- applets are rarely added to the panel (don't know how)
- can move the panel, even to less than useful locations
- most people use the default panel layout
- two panels uses a lot of screen real estate
- good to have a known entity on screen for planning around (i.e. hot corners will always be there)
- good to have status indicators available on the panel, but not applets

people want to control their presence at a computer
applets are rarely added to the panel, and are poorly understood in terms of adding/removing
workspaces are used for conceptual grouping of windows, switching between mental concepts
application menu is not the best means of launching applications
dynamically creating a new "activity space" for the user when needed will be something the user can grasp and work with, rather than having to learn about how to use it (like current workspaces)
visual differentiation between activities and specific windows will suffice for switching needs of the user

Something combining window management and workspace usage
- Grouping related windows (termed activities)
- Switching from one task to another (termed activities)
Launching applications
Modifying visible info presented on the panel