[IxDA Discuss] Bumptop

[Jeff Axup]

A few thoughts:

- the people doing the demo are are a graphics engineering group. that is
why it looks flashy, but it is primarily a test case to play with new
graphics capabilities. it's beyond what most grad students can produce in
the way of a prototype (and they probably spent an excessive amount of time
building it anyway).

- after castigating realistic 3D interfaces, I will say I like the 3D
interface on my garmin GPS navigator. I prefer it to the 2D mode because it
lets you "see more on the screen" looking off into the distance at a 30 deg
angle or so, which is better than looking straight down. I think this works
because it maps to your real driving experience which is 3D to begin with.
And actually both the 2D and 3D mode are useful, but for different purposes
and both of them allow "teleportation" between locations and zooming that
aren't realistic.

- I'm not sure there is an ideal purpose for a "desktop". It just exists as
a default because we have flat screens and layers of windows on them. It's
never a good place to put information because it's always obstructed. No UI
I've seen does a very good desktop. I suppose google desktop is actually
adding value to the desktop finally, but they do it by taking a portion of
the desktop and reserving it for widgets which are rarely covered by
windows. So it's less of a "desktop" and more of a reserved area of the
screen for top-level UIs. I don't think I want to manage anything on a
"desktop", it should all be in windows that are more accessible.

-Jeff

On 3/1/07, pauric <radiorental at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The correct link to dgp is  <www.dgp.toronto.edu<
> http://www.dgp.utoronto.edu/>
> >
>
> Dave M: noted on the project site that the designers "are actively
> pursuing
> the development of our prototype into a complete desktop replacement that
> can be installed on any machine." not just tablets!
> <http://bumptop.com/>
>
> Mark S: "I do not recall desktop document management being a huge issue.
> If
> I think introspectively - I can imagine that this might save me a few
> minutes a week - or month. That is a lot of horsepower for the pay off."
>
> Its a major issue for me and a real chore cleaning up.  While this might
> not
> be efficient it certainly makes the task fun and a nice distraction from
> real work.  I would liken it to a productive Tetris for the desktop.
>
> And a nice, if a little silly, animated short on literal desktop metaphors
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYx-cc0rx7c
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-- 
Best Regards,
Jeff
____________________________________________________________________________
Jeff Axup      Ph.D. Candidate - University of Queensland, Brisbane,
Australia
                   Principal Consultant, Mobile Community Design Consulting

Research:    Mobile Group Research Methods, Social Networks, Group Usability
E-mail:        axup <at> userdesign.com
Blog:           http://mobilecommunitydesign.com
Moblog:       http://memeaddict.blogspot.com
Academic:   http://www.infenv.itee.uq.edu.au
____________________________________________________________________________