There have been four new bug fixes since I last gave an update, which was a little under a fortnight ago. Several of these bugs focus on visual presentation, to make sure that text is easy to read and the UI intelligible. The others address interaction gremlins, which is always important when you have a somewhat dynamic UI.

Congrats to Stefano Facchini, Vít Stanislav and Alex Hultman for getting your fixes submitted! You’re awesome, and I’m sure that the users of GNOME 3 will love your changes.

The new fixes bring us to the half way point! We set the goal of fixing 20 bugs by the end of the cycle, and we have now closed 10. So things are going well, but there is still more to do! If you fancy fixing a GNOME bug that will enhance our user experience, this is your chance to help.

I’d like to reiterate that Every Detail Matters is not just for newbies. We are also setting our sights on issues that would benefit from the attention of a more practiced hand. If you are an experienced hacker who wants to chip in but doesn’t want the hassle of figuring out what needs fixing, Every Detail Matters is definitely for you.

So:

1. Check out the wiki page

2. Pick a bug

3. Get stuck in

That is all.

Xerox Star (1981)

The ‘WIMP’ paradigm is made up of four key components: windows, icons, menus and a pointer. The approach was highly file-centric when it was conceived, and mimicked the physical world of the office. There were files and file systems, and a desktop containing a variety of objects, such as a wastebasket. (The Xerox Star desktop even had an inbox and outbox for mail.) Multiple files could be worked with simultaneously by having them on the screen at the same time, with windows forming the basis of early multitasking functionality.

Apple Lisa 3 (1984)

GNOME 2.32 (2010)

As computer software and hardware have developed, problems with the WIMP model were discovered. It did not make efficient use of screen real estate. Objects on the desktop got lost underneath windows. Large numbers of menus encouraged GUI complexity and made it difficult for people to find actions when they needed them. The file system proved to be a labour intensive and error-prone method of storing and retrieving data. Windows themselves produced additional management tasks for users, and pointer-based input was found to be inappropriate for mobile devices.

So it is unsurprising that, dominant though it was, the era of the WIMP model is coming to an end. Some parts are inevitably being retained, but the basic formula of windows, icons, menus and pointers is being replaced. Maximized windows have become the norm, largely replacing the simultaneous display of several windows. Menus in the form of menu bars are increasingly uncommon. Pointers and pointing devices (such as mice and touchpads) are finding themselves coexisting with touch interfaces. File management is (quite rightly) being replaced. The desktop is becoming a thing of the past.

There are a number of reasons for the paradigm shift that we are witnessing in the field of GUI design. One of these has been the arrival of touchscreen mobile phones and later tablets. This new class of computing device required a different approach to GUI design, and forced designers to create alternatives to the WIMP model. Free of its constraints, they found the freedom to develop new approaches.

Apple iPhone 1 (2007)

Apple iPad 1 (2010)

Motorola Xoom (2011)

Mobile, touch-based devices like smart phones and tablets have been hugely successful, providing functionality that people value and experiences that they love. This has not merely been a consequence of their form factors or use of touch input. The design of the software found on these devices has been a major contributing factor to their popularity. Mobile, touch-based applications are typically better designed than so-called desktop software. They have better focus, are easier to use and deliver superior user experiences,

OS X 10.7 'Lion' (2011)

Given the success of mobile, touch devices, it is not surprising that they have started to influence the more traditional WIMP environments. OS X is the prime example here. The latest update to Apple’s ‘desktop’ operating system included numerous changes that were clearly influenced by mobile, touch-orientated design, including Launchpad (a facility for launching applications), overlaid scrollbars and fullscreen applications. OS X has demonstrated how design approaches from the touch world can improve that of the pointer world.

WebOS Laptop (Unreleased)

WebOS provides another example of mobile, touch orientated design being used on traditional WIMP devices. Though we are yet to see WebOS laptops or desktops in the shops, its designers and developers clearly think that it offers advantages for these kinds of machines, as well as the tablets and mobile phones on which it has already appeared. Now that the code is going open source, I’m sure we will see WebOS being used on laptop and desktop devices in the future. It shows how an operating system that was designed for touch input has much to offer machines that rely on pointing devices for input.

Windows 8 (ETA 2012)

Finally, the release of Windows 8 next year will be a major milestone in the move away from WIMP interfaces. The new Metro interface it will introduce is a variant of that found on Windows Phone 7, and will mark the end of the WIMP approach as the dominant interface paradigm for Windows. Windows 8, it should be emphasised, will not just be targeting tablets. It will also be found on laptops and desktops.

It is clear that the WIMP paradigm has started to give way to new and improved design approaches that have emerged in the mobile space, therefore. However, there is another process that is challenging the dominance of the WIMP paradigm: the increasingly blurred distinction between touch and non-touch devices.

Touch input is coming to a range of devices that have been the traditional habitat of WIMP environments: there are already many models of netbooks that have touchscreens, for example, and standalone monitors with touch input capabilities are increasingly common. At the same time, devices that function both as a tablet and a laptop (such as the Dell Duo, pictured below) have been available for some time, and tablet devices are themselves growing additional input capacities through keyboards, mice and touchpads, which sometimes feature as part of docking stations and cases.

iPad With Case and Keyboard (2011)

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer (2011)

Samsung NB30 Touchscreen Netbook (2010)

Dell Due Netbook (2011)

Acer T230H Touchscreen Monitor (2010)

These new types of devices that are emerging require operating systems that can handle both pointing devices and touch screens. An OS that can be used with only touch or only a pointing device will not be appropriate for them. Importantly, these new devices will become increasingly common after the release of Windows 8. Almost every PC sold with Windows 8 preinstalled will have a touchscreen. Many of these devices will also have a keyboard and pointing device.

Where does all this leave GNOME? GNOME 2 was firmly in the WIMP camp. With GNOME 3, we improved on that by starting to move away from the classic WIMP approach. There is no ‘desktop’ in GNOME 3, for example. The new GNOME 3 applications won’t typically behave like normal windows, either. They will be maximized by default and won’t have titlebars when they are maximized. A lot of the time you will not actually be able to tell that there is a window there at all.

Work to make GNOME 3 touch compatible is ongoing. Current design work is focusing on a number of areas, including scrolling. We are also developing touch compatible approaches to application design, so that new GNOME 3 applications will be effective with touchscreens. Here you will find click targets that are the right size for fingers, and we are making use of drag actions for key functionality. We are also planning ahead to make use of multitouch capabilities once they become available.

But touch does not come at the expense of pointing devices. GNOME 3 will remain a highly effective environment for pointer and keyboard input, which we will continue to optimise for. Many of the features of touch design, such as the use of drag actions and kinetic scrolling will be effective and enjoyable when using mouse input. Multitouch can also be used to positive effect with both touchpads and touchscreens. As this work progresses, those of us who contribute to GNOME design are finding that it is possible to create coherent designs that are effective using a variety of input devices.

tl;dr version

The time of traditional desktop GUI design is over and a new era is beginning. This offers the opportunity to make software that is better than what we had before. Touch input will play a major part in this new era, but it will exist alongside pointing devices and physical keyboards. Touch capabilities are already coming to laptops and desktops, and almost every new Windows 8 PC will feature a touchscreen. GNOME needs to be ready so that it can be used on these new devices. Thankfully, we’re already on the path to create great new user experiences that work with a variety of input devices.

For this first round of Every Detail Matters, we are focusing on the Activities Overview. We are being ambitious and are aiming to fix 20 UX bugs by the end of the release cycle.

There has already been an amazing response to Every Detail Matters. A whole crew of contributors have set to work, including some new contributors. Zan Dobersek, Seif Lotfy, Stefano Candori and Marc Plano Lesay have all successfully sumbitted patches. Vít Stanislav and Stefano Facchini are also hard at work on contributions of their own. The development version of GNOME Shell is already much nicer thanks to what they’ve been doing.

New style launcher labels

New style window captions

Every Detail Matters has got off to a great start, then; but there’s still lots more to do. We’re not even half way towards our 20 bug target! So, if you are interested in helping us to reach our goal, please get in touch. Every bug counts, and the clock is ticking.

Taking care of details does not just mean tackling easy bugs, and there are a number of more advanced tasks that we are looking for help with. If you are an experienced developer and want to make a valuable contribution, you can play an important role. Check out the wiki page for more details.

Today I’m announcing a new GNOME initiative called Every Detail Matters, the aim of which is to take care of all the little details and make sure that every part of GNOME 3 really shines. It will also provide great opportunities for those wanting to contribute to GNOME.

Minor visual and operational details make a huge difference to the user experiences that we provide. Small bugs can seriously undermine the overall experience. At the same time, little details can make the difference between being good and being amazing. The aim of Every Detail Matters is to focus in on these small details and make sure that we get them right.

Every Detail Matters will be divided into rounds, each of which will focus on a different part of GNOME 3. Designers and developers will work together to identify what needs improving, how to make it better, and implementing the required changes. We’re going to make sure that each round ends with a noticeable improvement to the component that we’re working on.

If you want to contribute to GNOME, Every Detail Matters is a great way to get involved. Every bug featured in the initiative is something that will make a real, noticeable difference. Furthermore, you can be assured that support will be on hand, whether it is through patch reviews or design advice. Check out the Every Detail Matters wiki page if you are interested, or just get in touch.

For the first round of Every Detail Matters, we will be focusing on the Activities Overview. This is obviously an important part of GNOME 3, and there are lots of small things that can be done that will make a big difference. Since the Activities Overview is part of GNOME Shell, this round of Every Detail Matters gives you the chance to work with cutting edge GNOME technologies. If you know Javascript and CSS, or you want to learn them, this will be perfect for you.

So far we have 35 bugs that we want to fix in the first Every Detail Matters round, which will run until the end of this development cycle (hard code freeze is 19 March). We’re setting a target – we want to make sure that no fewer than 20 of these bugs are fixed by the time of the next release. If this happens, we can be sure that there will be a noticeable and dramatic improvement in the Activities Overview in GNOME 3.4.

So, who wants to fix the first bug‽

Many thanks to Lucas Rocha for his ideas and for the name.

Perhaps the biggest and most exciting design venture right now is Jon and Jimmac’s ongoing application design work. We all know about Documents and Contacts, which had initial releases in 3.2. Now other new application designs are being produced, including Music, Photos, Chat, Transfers, Weather, Web, Mail, Calendar, Videos, Clock, Maps and Notes. These application designs are looking pretty awesome, and we’re already had developers stepping up to work on them. You can check them out them out on the wiki.

Music

We’re also looking to refresh the design of many of our utility applications at the moment. Vinicius did a really nice design for one of these recently - the GNOME dictionary. I really like the simplicity of this…

Dictionary

Jimmac has also been looking at making it easy to use different kinds of authentication with GNOME 3, and has designed a new GNOME Credentials application as well as some updates to Seahorse.

Credentials

And Jon has been looking at how to respond to technical problems when they happen, as well as designs for a new problem reporting application, called Oops. Jimmac’s been on hand to help with the visuals there. Cue cute graphics:

Fail Whale

Oops

Hylke’s been helping out in a few different places, mostly around system settings. He did a very nice redesign of the zoom options the other day. These are going to be added to the Universal Access settings panel for next release.

Jimmac (gosh that man works hard!) has also made some great updates to Cantarell, GNOME’s default font, including new characters and improved hinting.

Cantarell

Another part of System Settings that has been getting attention is the network panel, where Lapo has been valiantly pushing on with an epic redesign.

Monster Network Settings

Finally, I’ve been working on a number of system settings panels, including Power and Region and Language, and I’ve been untangling some of our text input methods. I’ve also been developing the Contacts designs to fit in with our other application designs.

As you can see, there’s lots going on in GNOME design at the moment. These are exciting times – we’re filling in large blanks in the GNOME 3 picture and we’re pulling things together to work as a whole. If you want to follow what’s happening, just subscribe the the relevant wiki pages or watch our Github repositories. Or stay tuned – there are more updates to come.

The design of the configuration options was actually resolved last cycle. The status part of the design remained unfinished, however. That power status part was the tricky bit, since it had to represent power information for both the actual device which GNOME is running on and any connected devices which might have their own power status. Last week, after many iterations, I finally came up with what seems to be a nice solution.

So, the power panel design now incorporates configuration options, device power status and status information for connected devices (you can find more information on the wiki). This is nice because it makes the system settings panel a superset of what’s found in the shell power menu. It also makes the power panel much more interesting and useful than it was before.

The best part is that Richard has already implemented a lot of the new design.

3.2 was an important release, in my opinion. There’s a ton of minor fixes and incremental improvements in there, as well as some bigger changes, such as the new login dialogs. Together, these changes make 3.2 feel like a really big improvement. It’s smoother, more robust, more attractive, and better integrated. 3.2 has set a very nice pace of improvement to the GNOME 3 core user experience.

One area that has seen big improvements in 3.2 is GNOME 3′s messaging integration. From this release, messaging facilities are provided by GNOME 3 itself, rather than a specific application. This means that you don’t need to launch a chat application in order to receive instant messages, for example. This is really advantageous, considering how messaging is increasingly central to the user experience.

3.2 also introduces the first results of several exciting new initiatives that will become increasingly important in the future. The release marks the first step in the development of new GNOME 3 applications. 3.0 was largely about the core GNOME 3 user experience, including GNOME Shell and the new control center, but GNOME needs new applications too. The two new applications that are included in 3.2 – Documents and Contacts – are the first step in that process. These new applications will be further developed in the future, and there are already designs for other new GNOME 3 applications, such as Music and Photos.

Finally, 3.2 brings a new focus on online integration to GNOME 3. This is a really major development. 3.2 includes a new facility called GNOME Online Accounts, which allows a user’s online accounts to be accessed by different GNOME applications. GNOME Online Accounts will play a major part in all the new GNOME 3 applications, as you can see with Documents and Contacts, both of which will access data stored in the cloud (they handle local data equally well, I might add). Web applications are another important innovation in 3.2 that will make using the web an even more seamless part of GNOME 3.

In all, then, 3.2 is a major release that takes the GNOME 3 user experience forward important ways. I think 3.2 shows how well the GNOME project is doing in pursuing its ambition to create a competitive, cutting edge user experience. The new features found in the release are also the result of many collaborations across our community, which is always good to see.

I’m already looking forward to 3.4.

I’m hugely excited to be taking on this role. It will enable me to step up a gear in my work on GNOME, and I’m also looking forward to working for one of the biggest supporters of upstream FOSS. So, watch this space!

Integrated chat and messaging

Amazing work going on here, largely thanks to Guillaume Desmottes. From 3.2, GNOME 3 will have fully integrated chat and messaging. This means that the system will be able to automatically log you into chat and messaging services without you needing to launch a separate application, and you will be able to take calls, reply to chat and room invitations as well as file transfers from the shell itself. Much of this has already been implemented, including a decent chunk of backend work.

Notification counters

Jasper St. Pierre has added notification counters to items in the message tray. This means that it will be possible to see how many emails are waiting for you without having to go to your email client, or how many messages you have missed in a particular chat. Guillaume Desmottes has also contributed to this work.

Persistent workspace switcher

Florian Müllner has changed the behaviour of the workspace switcher so that it now stays extended when you are using more than one workspace. Having tested this feature for a while, I have to say that it works really well and makes using workspaces feel much more natural.

Pretty window picker

An effort is currently being made to improve the appearance of the window selector part of the activities overview. The window thumbnails are being given stylish new decorations, which are already looking nice thanks to Maxim Ermilov. Here’s a sneak preview of his current work in progress:

New login dialogs

Ray Strode is busy working on new fully integrated login dialogs for GNOME 3. These will be super-slick and have the same style as the rest of GNOME Shell.

These are the mockups (no pressure, Ray )

Edit: check out Ray’s new post showing off the new login dialog (and don’t miss the video). Here’s a teaser:

Typing notifications

As a part of the messaging integration work, Alban Crequy and Jonny Lamb have added typing notification support to GNOME Shell, so that people who you are chatting with can see when you are entering a reply into a notification bubble.

Integrated contacts search

Morten Mjelva is working on this for his GSoC project, and it is one part of the integrated contacts framework that will feature in 3.2. It means that you will be able to search for contacts from the same place that you search for applications, recent documents, settings, and so on.

This is one of the mockups he’s currently working from:

Clocks for multiple time zones

Adding the ability to display the time for different places around the world is the focus of Stéphane Maniaci, who has been keeping us posted on the GNOME Shell mailing list. I know this a feature that a lot of people want to see, and it sounds like his work is proceeding well.

User menu improvements

This is another Florian Müllner effort. He’s working to ensure that the user menu gives a richer and more consistent representation of the user, and to introduce a toggle switch for a ‘Do not disturb’ mode. The functionality for do not disturb was included in 3.0 but it wasn’t fully present in the UI. When ‘Do not disturb’ is enabled, your messaging status will be switched to busy (if you are available) and only important notifications will be displayed. This will be a great little feature.

Here’s a screenshot of Florian’s work in progress:

Google Calendar integration

The drop down calendar now has Google Calendar integration, thanks to David Zeuthen’s work on GNOME Online Accounts.

Easier window resizing

One item that has been on the wish list for some time and which has finally been fixed is making it easier to grab the edge of a window in order to resize it. To make this happen, Jasper St. Pierre has added wider invisible borders to windows.

Pretty rounded window corners

Another item that has been on the wish list for some time are properly rendered rounded window corners. It sounds like a small thing, but getting this right will make the desktop look a whole lot nicer. And Jasper’s working on it.

Integrated on-screen keyboard

More GSoC goodness, this time from Nohemi Fernandez who has been working hard on creating a nice integrated on-screen keyboard. She already blogged about this, which means I can steal one of her screenshots.

Hot plug hotness

You may have read about this on Cosimo’s blog, but he’s already a way along with making device hot plugging work nicely with the shell. Once this work is completed, you will get proper notifications when you plug-in a removable device, like this one:

Performance improvements

And finally, Owen Taylor, GNOME Shell’s intrepid leader, has been doing some research on making performance even better. You can read more about that on his blog.

I’m sure there are things that I’ve missed. There’s lots of minor fixing and tweaking going on, and there are bound to be other improvements before the next release. As you can see though, this is already an impressive amount of work which makes me really excited for 3.2.

GNOME Contacts will pull together your contacts from your different online accounts and integrate them into a single address book. This means that looking up someone in GNOME Contacts will give you access to a summary of all your online relationships with that person (or as many as we are legally allowed to), including the various ways you can communicate with that person and links to the different places where they exist on the web.

One of the things that makes all this awesome online contacts integration possible is another new feature that is planned for GNOME 3.2: GNOME Online Accounts. I won’t talk too much about this because I’m not all that involved, but I will say that this is a huge win for GNOME in general. Web integration is the kind of thing that has been talked about for a long time but has never really materialised. Well, it’s happening. It’s a new departure for us, and it is a major modernising step. GNOME Contacts will be the first GNOME application to be built from the ground up with online accounts in mind but I’m sure it won’t be the last.

But anyway, you want to see mockups!

As you can see, GNOME Contacts has a simple two pane design. Search is going to be the primary way in which contacts are found, so the search box is put in a prominent place (the first place in terms of how the UI will be read). Next to that is the add contact button.

We’ve tried really hard to make GNOME Contacts about people rather than data. This is one reason why the right hand pane has such a prominent and rich representation of the contact, which makes it feel personal. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to pull in a range of different data to display there so that the most recent status update, Tweet or even IM message is included below the contact name.

The right hand pane also demonstrates the desire for GNOME Contacts to be what I’d call a minimal impact UI. Different tasks associated with the contact, such as editing contact details or adding a note, don’t involve radical UI transitions. The header stays where it is to provide continuity and context and UI changes occur inline rather than within new windows. There are no jarring context changes which results is a UI that is both more efficient (since the user does not have to continually reorientate themselves) and more comfortable to use.

One thing I’m especially happy with is the low number of disclosure points in the design. There are exactly two places where someone can reveal further options in the main UI: the application menu (which is present for all applications) and the user menu which is hosted in a button within the contact pane itself. This means there should be little searching around for menu entries.

Both editing and linking show how GNOME Contacts will pull together the your contacts from across the web. Editing is done per online account so that you can see which details are held in which online address book. Contact linking will be done automatically as much as possible, but there is also a facility to manually link contacts from different online accounts.

These designs are currently being implemented by the mighty Alex Larsson (who has also been contributing to the design process). I’m sure he’ll give a report on his progress at some point in the future. We haven’t been the only ones involved in the design, of course: Lapo Calamandrei was a major contributor and there are lots of Jon McCann‘s ideas in there as well as some nuggets of wisdom from Jimmac.

Questions? Comments? Opinions?