Hey guys, had some freetime recently, so I've been doing some tinkering with some interface designs for the NITs, and came up with this new design for the Maemo platform. It combines a bit of the current Maemo design with the iPhone layout. Tell me what you think.



For an understanding of the two bars at the top, the bar on the right is the "system tray" that is currently used on the NITS. The one on the left is the menu and program list. It holds a "home" button that takes you back to a blank desktop (well, a desktop full of widgits if you have them enabled, otherwise it's blank) as well as replaces the home menu in the home screen. To it's right are the web, email and programs menus currently in use on the NITS. Anything further to the right is additional programs that are running. So essentially it takes what's on the left bar currently and puts it on the top instead.

Gone is the titlebar and close buttons normally added by default at the top (see this image as a reference) and instead those will be added vertically to the left side. I may opt for the right side, but I haven't decided yet. Also gone is the pager, as that's added into the "home" button. Overall, the whole design is somewhat of a consolidation and simplification of the existing interface.

Also, the programs menu (denoted with the plus icon above) has been replaced by the icon slider in the center of the screen. I haven't added labeling yet to the icons, as I'm not sure how that'll work, but in the end, this slider would work very similar to the personal menu currently available to the tablets, but will be able to hold far more, allowing for multiple screens of icons. I'm also looking to integrate groups into the design too, but for now I've only got this in the initial mockup.

For those interested, I don't have a beta of this, or even any code as yet, as I only do the actual design and mockups of interfaces, rather than the actual coding and assembly of them. Plus this mockup is only what I would consider an initial demonstration (a 0.1 alpha of sorts) of the overall design, and does not even remotely demonstrate the final design. I'm still working on that. But since you guys would ultimately be deciding if this design will live or die, I figured to show my initial idea, and then get input from you on improvements and extras. After that, if any developer wants to turn my mockups into reality, they're welcome to.

Anyhow, your feedback is welcome. In fact, any feedback is welcome. If you like it, say so. If you think it sucks, I'm fine with that too. I'd rather hear "it sucks! kill it!" right away than put too much work into it and find out nobody likes it. heh. So be as gentle or cruel as you feel necessary.

PS: The desktop is show "with wallpaper" in place. I can show an empty desktop too if someone needs it.

"it sucks! kill it!"

NOT

how about "its awesome, let it LIVE!"

Seriously, this is really good. I actually had some ideas about the same thing, mostly borrowing ideas from KDE4 and OSX.

First of all, the current widgets should be like OSX or Compiz. Press an icon, and the screen goes dark and the widgets show up.

The close / minimize icons should still be at the top, because that is "natural" for most computer users.

Then, the "cool" part. Similar to Fennec, if you drag the screen, then the Programs, Email, etc... show up. Maybe this is a bad idea, I don't know.

Also, I think there should be a combination of the current menu based program launcher, and the icon launcher shown here. If there are 20 programs, i don't want 4 home screens with a bunch of icons (a al iPhone). Instead, lets make each icon on the home screen a "category," then when it is clicked, it brings up apps in the category.


I'll make a quick mockup if I have time.

I like it

bun

Cool. One idea I could do is to have the system tray slide over and allow a BeOS type header with minimize and close it it. The ultimate idea behind this layout was to maximize the horizontal realestate and simplify the interface a bit more to make it more thumb friendly. Another element I was considering was completely ditching the above bars (or changing how they appeared) and creating a popup system tray and program bar instead, further increasing the vertical realestate as well, and further making it thumb friendly. Haven't fully fleshed out those ideas yet, but if enough people like this, I may go that way just to see what others say.

I like it (though I'm not sure yet I'd switch). But it made me think about the desktop design. My first thought is that I'd rather NOT have the title bar along the side, unless it were optional (though personally I'd still never use it). As far as I'm concerned, I can do without the title bar altogether. I know if I'm in Xterm or the browser or File Manager without a title bar to tell me. And I hate to give up the real estate.

So that makes me think that the best thing about what you have (for me, who is happy with Personal Menu so cares little about the iPhone-type icon arrangement) is the LACK of a Title bar along the top, and the wise use of that space to put the standard left-side stuff there (MicroB icon, Personal Menu icon, App Menu, open apps).

Even better, what I would like to see in a GUI, and it would suit what you are doing, is, say, a Full-screen-view desktop that has just a little icon superimposed in a corner (I'm talking about when you have an application open and on top), the clicking of which would reveal your (currently shown) two bars. That is, you could go back and forth between Full-screen and non-Full-screen (what's it called, Window View maybe?) without having to press the little hardware button (which, at least on the N800, is a minor nuisance).

Likewise I wouldn't want to lose space to a Close button; rather I'd let that function be carried by the Applications Menu, where there are Close buttons under the standard GUI, but with the Applications Menu being in your (hidden-but-revealable, in my scenario) bar on the top left.

Also, within your scheme of things, I would want you to have an alternative desktop (or a "category) that showed the desktop applets, like Internet Radio, OMWeather, FM Radio (on the N800), etc.

I think it would be interesting to you to check this: http://tabletui.wordpress.com/2009/0...the-beginning/

Yeah, I had also considered ditching the title bar entirely as well. Just hadn't gotten that far yet. Considering that the NITs really don't need one (where exactly are you going to drag the window anyways?), there's no point in having it.
Wow, I like that idea. I could definitely toss that into some future drafts.
Yeah, that's what "home" does. It reveals the desktop with all the applets just like the home option in the pager does in the current design.

Hey, so far these are some great ideas. Keep them coming guys! I'll tinker with the templates a bit more over the weekend and incorporate some of your ideas.

I really like it but is it only a photoshop mockup or have you/are you going to make it?

Right now I'm only doing photoshop mockups. Once I get settled on a design, I hand it over to developers who then take it and turn it into the real thing. My job is just as an interface designer, which is like 99% design, 1% coding. heh. But once a mockup is done, it becomes uber easy for a developer to complete the work since they already know everything that needs to be done and have a clear roadmap to completion. I've done this plenty of times before, but this is the first with the NITs.

@Lord Raiden

You got emule working on the tablet? Mind to share?

bun