[bh]

We are a software house looking to design a concept GUI desktop for tablet PCs and laptops. We are looking for a new avenue to approach the desktop thought process from, ie an artist's viewpoint for color, movement and using digital ink as a building point for the GUI, not the keyboard/mouse. We know that our traditional programmers approach to designing a piece of software or a feature is too boring and precise in nature. We want to break this mold.

Nothing is in stone in this design except our desire not to have any square windows, multi-layered menus and little icons or buttons.

Some thoughts on sequence of importance when accessing the computer.
---------------------------------
Tablet PC - primary input from ink and speech recognition then keyboard/mouse.
Laptop - primary input from speech recognition and wacom ink gestures then keyboard/mouse.

Preliminary thoughts
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We would like the desktop design for the tablet PC to be able to carry over to laptops and use all of the GUI operations except the ink.

Would be nice to have an interface that allows a slate style tablet PC not to require a keyboard very often if at all.


There seem to be some neat usage ideas from alias sketchbook. Perhaps some design and movement techniques could be used to operate the desktop GUI

Maybe writing (ink) the name of a picture will display it.

A gesture might call the main menu or a gesture to activate your word processor.
Perhaps a gesture to push this concept GUI to the side and display the regular windows desktop

We envision the purpose of the ink/gestures initially to be more towards computer operation and information retrieval as opposed to designing a drawing program.
After the concept desktop design, we could look into drawing abilities.

Perhaps contributors could publish intial color schemes and/or broad concepts designs here for discussion.
I think .JPG or .BMP would be preferable for us so that we can markup and re-publish for comment. We are software programers and not artists so contributors will have to let us know what grapic formats are preferable to work with.

Bill

[Ian Jones]

If you are serious about making a commercial product I strongly recommend you actually hire a GUI designer, a usability expert, a cognitive psychologist and probably an industrial designer aswell.

I'm not sure we can really help you that much, perhaps from an artists point of view yes... but we don't really have time to devote to free work.
If you are a genuine software house, then I would assume you have a website?

On a side note: When you buy a Wacom tablet it comes with software called 'sensiva' that is a gesture based interface system that is designed to
complement the existing windows interface when working with the tablet. I
suggest you research this product as it already has many features you would
be interested in.

Also, I am a bit concerned about a totally gesture based interface system. Part of the reasons that icons work is that they are based on metaphors such as the 'desktop' itself. This is designed to be as easy as possible for first time users to pick up on. It means that no prior knowledge is needed, such was the problem with earlier 'command prompt' systems which required the user memorise commands and syntax even before beginning to use the system. That is why I think you should consider a gesture based system more carefully.

I hope that helps.

[bh]

Hi Ian
I was hoping that artists with unique vision and a concept of how a futuristic desktop should look, would submit a broad view sketch of how they would make a windows desktop look. This would allow us to find an artist with original ideas and willing to adjust the look for practical interface considerations.
We are trying to skip the traditional interview, references and sample of work procedure and use the internet to sample many artists that otherwise we would never see. At this point we could engage with someone.

The middle of my original post showed a blended speech/gesture/mouse/keyboard approach and you are correct that a totally gesture based system is impractical.

Bill

[elam]

Caught this over at Wired

It's a java app for web designers called Denim that lets you 'sketch' a working website. It's very cool and has been designed for a tablet pc/wacom. Has a nifty pie based menu scheme and uses a variety of gestures for certain functions. Check out the videos.
I don't know if the source is included anywhere.

[bh]

yes I have seen the demin and related web interfaces. They are neat but still very traditional, square windows, boxey looking.

I am looking for something wilder and original to replace the windows desktop with its little icons. Remember the GUI will be a blended ink and speech recognition interface.