Originally posted on May 18, 2010 @ 1:03 am
I once said that I wasn’t impressed at all with Google Chrome OS’s user interface because, well, it’s just Google Chrome the browser taking up the whole screen and if you’ve worked with nothing but a browser open, you’d know how boring that is. I don’t think I can work with just Google Chrome on my screen, that’ll be a hassle, don’t you think?
Well, now these are design ideas so far, but if this gets implemented, Google Chrome OS will get a window management scheme that’s similar to Apple’s Cover Flow seen on iTunes and Safari.
We present tabs in a venetian blind arrangement, ensuring visibility of the top left of every page, and using perspective to compress the most useful portions of the page into the available strips. Favicons are presented as an alternative visual aid.
There’s also a tab Switching overlay that would be really cool to have running if implemented. It kind of reminds me of the effects on Compiz.
A lightweight version of this may be available for quick alt-tab switching. This would be sorted by most recently used (versus the ordered, ctrl-tab switcher) and would potentially include recently closed items from history. When switching, the contents in the background would swap to match the currently selected thumbnail/icon.
Sadly, there’s a huge disclaimer that says “Note: UI under development. Designs are subject to change.” on the Chromium User Experience page where I got these images from.
What do you think of these new design ideas for window management?