Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion

Ubuntu's Latest Interface "Brainstorm" - HUD

(1/3) > >>

40hz:
What do you get when you cross something like Launchy and Mouser's FARR and wrap it in something that looks like an Adobe Air interface? You get Ubuntu's HUD (Heads Up Display) - Mark Shuttleworth's latest foray into 'original'  :-\ interface design for his adopted wonder-child.

Check out the following video. Does any of this look familiar?



It's a bit much to go into in a post. So the logical starting place is Mssr. Shuttleworth's own blog where he speaks rapturously about his latest brainstorm:

Introducing the HUD. Say hello to the future of the menu.
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

The desktop remains central to our everyday work and play, despite all the excitement around tablets, TV’s and phones. So it’s exciting for us to innovate in the desktop too, especially when we find ways to enhance the experience of both heavy “power” users and casual users at the same time. The desktop will be with us for a long time, and for those of us who spend hours every day using a wide diversity of applications, here is some very good news: 12.04 LTS will include the first step in a major new approach to application interfaces.

This work grows out of observations of new and established / sophisticated users making extensive use of the broader set of capabilities in their applications. We noticed that both groups of users spent a lot of time, relatively speaking, navigating the menus of their applications, either to learn about the capabilities of the app, or to take a specific action. We were also conscious of the broader theme in Unity design of leading from user intent. And that set us on a course which lead to today’s first public milestone on what we expect will  be a long, fruitful and exciting journey.

The menu has been a central part of the GUI since Xerox PARC invented ‘em in the 70′s. It’s the M in WIMP and has been there, essentially unchanged, for 30 years.
--- End quote ---

What I find quite interesting in this blog post is the first image that follows the above text. It's this:



Yes. It's an original Apple desktop. Do you begin to suspect where Mr. Shuttleworth is going with this now that the 'Son of Zeus,' Steven Jobs has quit this mortal clay? Apparently there's a perceived vacuum in the computing universe. And Mark Shuttleworth abhors that vacuum.

Unfortunately, I think Mr. Shuttleworth fails to appreciate that the current desktop metaphor (WIMP) has been in place for 30 years because it works. It's a proven design that admittedly has its faults and shortcomings. But it works. And people get a lot of things done using it.

And despite the flowery prose, as it stands from its given description, there is nothing new in HUD. It's a mashup of adaptive interface ideas and launchers that have been around for years. And there are numerous realizations of them available for download on all the major software sites.

Hmm...Maybe, if Mr. Shuttleworth knew a little more about software and interface design, he'd know that?

What is it about non-coders and non-engineers that they feel the need to try to carve out a place for themselves in computing history without mastering any of the skill set required to earn such a name? When did "design" and "vision" replace engineering, programming skills, and computer science as requisites for true innovation?

Oh...that's right! It happened when Steve Jobs decided to ride into town on the coattails of people like Steve Wozniac, Jef Raskin, Andy Herzfeld, Burrell Smith, and a host of others. Failing to master any technical skill, Jobs called himself a "designer," and then unilaterally put himself in charge of the people who did have real skills.

And now it looks like Mark Shuttleworth is heading down the same road. And dragging Ubuntu along with him.


There's a couple of articles over at ZD's website that might be worth reading. The first is a quick intro to HUD. The second, is another one of ZD's usual cautious don't-rock-the-boat follow-ups.

Beyond the desktop: Ubuntu Linux's new Head-Up Display

By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols | January 24, 2012, 8:13am PST

Summary: Following on the heels of changing its interface from the GNOME 3.x shell to Unity, Ubuntu is proposing a new, radical change to the desktop Linux interface: Head-Up Display.

Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical Ubuntu Linux’s parent company, has announced that Ubuntu will be adopting a radical new change to the interface that will do away with the “menu” in the Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer (WIMP) interface, which has defined the desktop for the last thirty years.

Shuttleworth states, “The menu has been a central part of the GUI since Xerox PARC invented ‘em in the 70?s. It’s the M in WIMP and has been there, essentially unchanged, for 30 years. We can do much better!” This new interface, which will first appear as a beta in April’s Ubuntu 12.04 release, is called Head-Up Display.
--- End quote ---

Link to above article here.

Linux users cautiously optimistic about Ubuntu's Head-Up Display desktop

By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols | January 26, 2012, 8:55am PST

Summary: Most users seem willing to give Ubuntu Linux’s Head-Up Display interface the benefit of the doubt.


When Ubuntu announced that it was going to switch to Unity for its primary Linux desktop, some users were outraged by Ubuntu’s shift to a new interface. Many turned to Linux Mint in place of Ubuntu. So, when Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth announced that Ubuntu would be moving from Unity to Head-Up Display (HUD), I expected Linux users to be even more annoyed. I was wrong. Instead, they are taking a wait-and-see attitude to HUD.
--- End quote ---

Link to above article here.

The thing that really makes something like this a problem for me is Canonical's plan to offer HUD as a replacement - not an add-on or an accessory - to the standard menu and mouse interface. As was the case with Unity, Canonical is deliberately walking away from the larger Linux community with interface decisions that will end up becoming the equivalent of a proprietary interface since it's doubtful any other distros will follow them down the path they're taking.

And all because somebody decided to do something different purely for the sake of doing anything different - just so long as he can put his own name on it.

Ubuntu's Latest Interface "Brainstorm" - HUD

 :P

Deozaan:
It actually looks pretty cool to me. It's not just an app launcher. It allows you to search and "launch" all the things from the menus in multiple applications. Sweet!

That said, I agree with you in that I'm not too keen on the idea of it totally replacing the menus rather than being an additional feature. Sometimes you can't remember the name of something but you have an idea where to find it and once you see it you know what it is.

I hardly use the Windows Start menu anymore because of the nifty built-in launcher in Windows 7 (and I think Vista). But when I do it is exactly for that reason: I can't remember the name of the program I want to launch but I'll know it when I see it.

barney:
Change for the sake of change is not, never has been, and never will be good.  (Well, maybe if you're cooking dinner  ;D, but even there 'tis not always well received unless you get very lucky  ;).)

I'd like to see some of these mental giants, these impresarios of innovation replace the wheel.  After all, it fits all the [supposed] criteria:

* It's been around - no pun intended, but all accolades accepted  :P - for centuries.
* It's definitely old hat.
* People use it all the time.  (Hey, this one is important - if you can't discomfit the users, why bother?)
* No one has done any real enhancement recently (chrome rims, spinners, and the like don't count).
And don't modernize it, let's replace it.

Hell, that should be enough to inspire any innovator, doncha thimk?  

As you might surmise, I'm not in favour of pointless innovation.  The HUD element strikes me as being very much like the ribbons that are so in favor right now.  They take up a lot of screen real estate, they are difficult to maneuver - unless you have an eighteen-year-old's 20/20 vision - and have served no real purpose save to confuse the user and point out how innovative the developer team is.  The old-fashioned toolbar did the same thing w/o gobbling excess vertical space.  Having seen the intro, HUD strikes me as being in the same vein, "Let's do something different because it's different."

Oh, well, I was leaning away from Ubuntu anyway  :P.

40hz:
It actually looks pretty cool to me. It's not just an app launcher. It allows you to search and "launch" all the things from the menus in multiple applications. Sweet!

-Deozaan (February 01, 2012, 12:32 AM)
--- End quote ---

It certainly is - IF - you're primarily interested in coming up with an interface for tablet PCs.

Which is where Canonical and Ubuntu are obviously going despite their being so coy about it.

I keep waiting for an Ubuntu branded tablet to be introduced. After which I expect Canonical to attempt to do the same thing with Linux that Apple did with Mach - wrap a proprietary interface and userland around an ostensibly 'open' platform, with the goal of getting away from GNU and that pesky GPL most of it is licensed under.
 :-\

Deozaan:
It actually looks pretty cool to me. It's not just an app launcher. It allows you to search and "launch" all the things from the menus in multiple applications. Sweet!
-Deozaan (February 01, 2012, 12:32 AM)
--- End quote ---

It certainly is - IF - you're primarily interested in coming up with an interface for tablet PCs.-40hz (February 01, 2012, 06:16 AM)
--- End quote ---

I disagree. Typing your search terms would be more of a hassle on a tablet PC's virtual keyboard than navigating the menus with touch. On the other hand, pressing a hotkey to bring up the HUD and speedily typing away to get access to the things you want would be so much better on your desktop/laptop PC with a physical keyboard.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page