[gentoo-desktop-research] thesis - support - question - ideas ...

[gentoo-desktop-research] thesis - support - question - ideas ...

[Johannes Neugschwentner Jr]

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Hi Guys!

i'm writing a thesis on "the user-centerd desktop".
as part of the thesis i'm doing a prototype too.

this is something i really longed to do for a long time and am now about to 
start. since i'm under a tight schedule and am not too good a programmer with 
not too much experience it ain't gonna be something big.

but anyway. read some boox. surfed around.
found the plasma project (plasma.kde.org). xinf.org (xinf.org). screenweaver 
hx (http://haxe.org/swhx). of course there is superkaramba ...

tend to doing it in haxe (eclihaxe + screenweaver hx) ... pretty sure about 
that since the only language i'm really fluent in is actionscript and haxe is 
not far from it (wanted to do it in flex before ... but prefer haxe since 
it's all open source)

did some research on hci (designing interactions) ... am going to do empirical 
user research .... non-technical-useres ..
am doing some research on the piling metapher and lifestreams & co at the mom.

bumptop by the way with it's piling metaphor is really something very 
appealing and those guys with their thesis did exactly what i'm going to do. 
(www.bumptop.com)

well, i'm not exactly sure what i wanna say or question with this, but hey, 
found out about this mailing list and thought - hey, sounds great, give it a 
shot.

so if you got any ideas, proposals, whatever, here i am

Cya,

-- 
Johannes Neugschwentner

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Re: [gentoo-desktop-research] thesis - support - question - ideas ...

[John Nilsson]

Hi!

I totally forgot about this list. Must have been ages since the last
post. =)

On Thu, 2007-05-03 at 23:31 +0200, Johannes Neugschwentner Jr wrote:
> but anyway. read some boox. surfed around.

I hope that involves most things from Donal Norman. Also don't miss Jeff
Raskins. Another concept that might be interesting in this space is
David Allens theoris for "Getting Things Done". I've also found som nice
articles on http://headrush.typepad.com/

Also do some searching for activity based computing.

> so if you got any ideas, proposals, whatever, here i am

I have a classmate doing a thesis on the desktop metaphor that I've been
dumping links on. I'll see if I can get a copy of what he's got so far
for you.

Regards,
John Nilsson
-- 
gentoo-desktop-research@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-desktop-research] thesis - support - question - ideas ...

[dams]

On Fri, 04 May 2007 00:11:19 +0200
John Nilsson <john@milsson.nu> wrote:

> Hi!
> 
> I totally forgot about this list. Must have been ages since the last
> post. =)

Yeah this list were pretty much dead :) The project, too.

My opinion on that is that we didn't achieve to get a consensu on what
was our vision of the gentoo desktop, and what we wanted to
improve/change. Some people at gentoo actually think that we shouldn't
try to have a "gentoo desktop" concept : basically just including
upstream desktop application is enough.


-- 
gentoo-desktop-research@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-desktop-research] thesis - support - question - ideas ...

[Johannes Neugschwentner Jr]

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Hi!

@john nilsson
>I hope that involves most things from Donal Norman. Also don't miss Jeff
>Raskins. Another concept that might be interesting in this space is
>David Allens theoris for "Getting Things Done". I've also found som nice
>articles on http://headrush.typepad.com/
>Also do some searching for activity based computing.

The theory actually is seperated in 3 parts:
* The GUI [ got JEFF RASKINS in here!]
	- history,development ( zit. n. Mike Tuck, http://www.sitepoint.com/article/real-history-gui, vgl. Douglas C. Engelbart, http://www.invisiblerevolution.net/engelbart/full_62_paper_augm_hum_int.html, Jeremy Reimer, http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/gui.ars/)
	- the desktop metaphor & alternate developments (filing, piling, lifestreams ..) (beyond the desktop metaphor, mit press)
	- the social dimension (beyond the desktop metaphor, mit press)
* Designing Interactions (based on the book Designing interactions by bill moggridge - HE IS TALKIN ABOUT DAVID ALLENS and Getting Things Done ... or was it Mitch Kapor who was talking about that guy ... i think it was Mitch Kapor who bill was talkin about .. *g*)
	- designing for everyday life (david little, team leader at the xerox star interface)
	- how do you ...? (bill verplank, xerox star guy again ... about the process the designer developes an idea into an metaphor or scenario)
	- design adopts technology (david kelley, IDEO ... about sociological integrated technology)
	- things should be themselves (durrell bishop ... about designing functionality)
	- designing interactions (bill moggridge ... about ideo and the actual science of designing interactions)
* Design Patterns
	.... about to come
	will be about some typical programming design patterns in the related context

* Practical Part ....

Thank You :) would be great if you could get me that stuff of your friend ... however, could send some of my stuff as well if it wasn't german ...

@dams
> My opinion on that is that we didn't achieve to get a consensu on what
> was our vision of the gentoo desktop, and what we wanted to
> improve/change. Some people at gentoo actually think that we shouldn't
> try to have a "gentoo desktop" concept : basically just including
> upstream desktop application is enough.

Hei, you really wanted to create one specific gentoo desktop?
what would that have been?
like a ready ebuild consisting of some special kde-features and some pre-arranged superkaramba themes??
sounds great!
still i'd say i very much understand your decision not to do something like this as the one's who are appreciating the features are growing less the more
specific and detailed the featured desktop gets ...
(see attachement *lol*)

uhm, i don't know what you mean by upstream desktop application ...
though i assume it is just options of extra-values the user can pick himself ..

anyway ... my idea is to do some kind of flash movie like integration into the background image of the desktop ...
it's not to replace any program functionalities ... i figured out that there are too many programs that do it's purpose too well so it would be nonsense to reinvent the wheel ...
i just thought it could be something pretty similar to that bumptop.com thing ...
maybe there could be some kind of functionality that would replace parts of file browsing and it's tree-structural kind of access ....
maybe the user could handle piles that would really be symlinked files in the file hierarchy (home/user/desktop/files/ ....) ... but he would never have to see and handle it this way (if he didn't want to)
maybe these files could be organized by properties like time, groups (work, spare time, fun, application, videos, pics .... ) and subgroups ... having some new kind of tools to easily and intuitivly access auto-generated piles by this very selected properties and groups.

ok, this is it. cu

-- 
Johannes Neugschwentner

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Re: [gentoo-desktop-research] thesis - support - question - ideas ...

[Derek Tracy]

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On 5/3/07, Johannes Neugschwentner Jr <neugschwentner@comteam.at> wrote:
>
> Hi Guys!
>
> i'm writing a thesis on "the user-centerd desktop".
> as part of the thesis i'm doing a prototype too.
>
> this is something i really longed to do for a long time and am now about
> to
> start. since i'm under a tight schedule and am not too good a programmer
> with
> not too much experience it ain't gonna be something big.
>
> but anyway. read some boox. surfed around.
> found the plasma project (plasma.kde.org). xinf.org (xinf.org).
> screenweaver
> hx (http://haxe.org/swhx). of course there is superkaramba ...
>
> tend to doing it in haxe (eclihaxe + screenweaver hx) ... pretty sure
> about
> that since the only language i'm really fluent in is actionscript and haxe
> is
> not far from it (wanted to do it in flex before ... but prefer haxe since
> it's all open source)
>
> did some research on hci (designing interactions) ... am going to do
> empirical
> user research .... non-technical-useres ..
> am doing some research on the piling metapher and lifestreams & co at the
> mom.
>
> bumptop by the way with it's piling metaphor is really something very
> appealing and those guys with their thesis did exactly what i'm going to
> do.
> (www.bumptop.com)
>
> well, i'm not exactly sure what i wanna say or question with this, but
> hey,
> found out about this mailing list and thought - hey, sounds great, give it
> a
> shot.
>
> so if you got any ideas, proposals, whatever, here i am
>
> Cya,
>
> --
> Johannes Neugschwentner
>
>

Johannes,

You might want to consider looking at http://www.symphonyos.com/cms/ they
have the most unique approach to a user oriented desktop that I have seen to
date they are using Mozilla engine w/XUL so it shouldn't be too difficult to
program.


-- 
---------------------------------
Derek Tracy
tracyde@gmail.com
---------------------------------

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Re: [gentoo-desktop-research] thesis - support - question - ideas ...

[John Nilsson]

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On Fri, 2007-05-04 at 11:57 +0200, Johannes Neugschwentner Jr wrote:
> Thank You :) would be great if you could get me that stuff of your
> friend ... however, could send some of my stuff as well if it wasn't
> german ...

He sent me the attached links. Should be some interesting things in
there. No references yet though, maybe in a week or two. The work it
self is in Swedish though, so...

Regards,
John

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Re: [gentoo-desktop-research] thesis - support - question - ideas ...

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

Derek Tracy wrote:
> On 5/3/07, *Johannes Neugschwentner Jr* <neugschwentner@comteam.at 
> <mailto:neugschwentner@comteam.at>> wrote:
>
>     Hi Guys!
>
>     i'm writing a thesis on "the user-centerd desktop".
>     as part of the thesis i'm doing a prototype too.
>
>     this is something i really longed to do for a long time and am now
>     about to
>     start. since i'm under a tight schedule and am not too good a
>     programmer with
>     not too much experience it ain't gonna be something big.
>
>     but anyway. read some boox. surfed around.
>     found the plasma project ( plasma.kde.org
>     <http://plasma.kde.org>). xinf.org <http://xinf.org> (xinf.org
>     <http://xinf.org>). screenweaver
>     hx (http://haxe.org/swhx). of course there is superkaramba ...
>
>     tend to doing it in haxe (eclihaxe + screenweaver hx) ... pretty
>     sure about
>     that since the only language i'm really fluent in is actionscript
>     and haxe is
>     not far from it (wanted to do it in flex before ... but prefer
>     haxe since
>     it's all open source)
>
>     did some research on hci (designing interactions) ... am going to
>     do empirical
>     user research .... non-technical-useres ..
>     am doing some research on the piling metapher and lifestreams & co
>     at the mom.
>
>     bumptop by the way with it's piling metaphor is really something very
>     appealing and those guys with their thesis did exactly what i'm
>     going to do.
>     (www.bumptop.com <http://www.bumptop.com> )
>
>     well, i'm not exactly sure what i wanna say or question with this,
>     but hey,
>     found out about this mailing list and thought - hey, sounds great,
>     give it a
>     shot.
>
>     so if you got any ideas, proposals, whatever, here i am
>
>     Cya,
>
>     --
>     Johannes Neugschwentner
>
>
>
> Johannes,
>
> You might want to consider looking at http://www.symphonyos.com/cms/ 
> they have the most unique approach to a user oriented desktop that I 
> have seen to date they are using Mozilla engine w/XUL so it shouldn't 
> be too difficult to program.
>
>
> -- 
> ---------------------------------
> Derek Tracy
> tracyde@gmail.com <mailto:tracyde@gmail.com>
> ---------------------------------
Unfortunately, SymphonyOS died -- the founder ran out of his own money, 
essentially. UIs are a *huge* business, and while I applaud and 
encourage basic research and initiative, it's *very* difficult to turn 
such research and initiative into cash.

That said, the sort of UI that I think of as the "UI of the future" 
would be a full virtual reality environment with which one could do 
"whole-body interaction" with a computer. How about an exercise bicycle 
with a keyboard and mouse on the handlebars? A wall-sized keyboard one 
could punch with boxing gloves? Drag-and-drop with objects that actually 
weigh something?
-- 
gentoo-desktop-research@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-desktop-research] thesis - support - question - ideas ...

[b.n.]

> Unfortunately, SymphonyOS died -- the founder ran out of his own money, 
> essentially. UIs are a *huge* business, and while I applaud and 
> encourage basic research and initiative, it's *very* difficult to turn 
> such research and initiative into cash.

That's really sad. I never tried Mezzo or SymphonyOS, but AFAIK it was 
extremly interesting.
No one has ever tried to take care of Mezzo? :(

> That said, the sort of UI that I think of as the "UI of the future" 
> would be a full virtual reality environment with which one could do 
> "whole-body interaction" with a computer. How about an exercise bicycle 
> with a keyboard and mouse on the handlebars? A wall-sized keyboard one 
> could punch with boxing gloves? Drag-and-drop with objects that actually 
> weigh something?

I hope you're kidding... :)

m.
-- 
gentoo-desktop-research@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-desktop-research] thesis - support - question - ideas ...

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

b.n. wrote:
>
>> Unfortunately, SymphonyOS died -- the founder ran out of his own 
>> money, essentially. UIs are a *huge* business, and while I applaud 
>> and encourage basic research and initiative, it's *very* difficult to 
>> turn such research and initiative into cash.
>
> That's really sad. I never tried Mezzo or SymphonyOS, but AFAIK it was 
> extremly interesting.
> No one has ever tried to take care of Mezzo? :(
I tried them and found them less than satisfying. I don't, for example, 
think there's such a thing as an "intuitive" user interface.
>
>> That said, the sort of UI that I think of as the "UI of the future" 
>> would be a full virtual reality environment with which one could do 
>> "whole-body interaction" with a computer. How about an exercise 
>> bicycle with a keyboard and mouse on the handlebars? A wall-sized 
>> keyboard one could punch with boxing gloves? Drag-and-drop with 
>> objects that actually weigh something?
>
> I hope you're kidding... :)
Not really ... the alternative would be a wireless wearable that you 
could carry around with you and use while taking long hikes in the woods.

-- 
gentoo-desktop-research@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-desktop-research] thesis - support - question - ideas ...

[b.n.]

M. Edward (Ed) Borasky ha scritto:
>>> That said, the sort of UI that I think of as the "UI of the future" 
>>> would be a full virtual reality environment with which one could do 
>>> "whole-body interaction" with a computer. How about an exercise 
>>> bicycle with a keyboard and mouse on the handlebars? A wall-sized 
>>> keyboard one could punch with boxing gloves? Drag-and-drop with 
>>> objects that actually weigh something?
>>
>> I hope you're kidding... :)
> Not really ... the alternative would be a wireless wearable that you 
> could carry around with you and use while taking long hikes in the woods.

Do you think the aim of an UI is to increase muscular mass!?

m.

-- 
gentoo-desktop-research@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-desktop-research] thesis - support - question - ideas ...

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

b.n. wrote:
> M. Edward (Ed) Borasky ha scritto:
>>>> That said, the sort of UI that I think of as the "UI of the future" 
>>>> would be a full virtual reality environment with which one could do 
>>>> "whole-body interaction" with a computer. How about an exercise 
>>>> bicycle with a keyboard and mouse on the handlebars? A wall-sized 
>>>> keyboard one could punch with boxing gloves? Drag-and-drop with 
>>>> objects that actually weigh something?
>>>
>>> I hope you're kidding... :)
>> Not really ... the alternative would be a wireless wearable that you 
>> could carry around with you and use while taking long hikes in the 
>> woods.
>
> Do you think the aim of an UI is to increase muscular mass!?
>
> m.
>
No ... there are times when I want to punch out a machine, and I would 
dearly love a wall-mounted keyboard with large keys I could operate with 
boxing gloves.
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