Quicksilver + UIDesktop = Death of Menus?
Quicksilver. Sounds like we are vampire hunting. Actually it is a prototype for a universal interaction model @ Google based on existing UI concepts of Mac’s finder + command line.
What stuck with me after pondering it awhile is the speed (as you watch it) of its interaction. It enables you to scan through all kinds of digital media, drilling down into it, and then being able to take any relevant actions … all without leaving the UI. In effect a generic UI far more powerful than file explorer for all applications.
| Webcast Details | Notable Points |
| Title/Link: Quicksilver: Universal Access & Action
Speaker: Nicholas Jitkoff User Interface Designer at Google. Recommend to Watch? Yes.
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1. Designing Interaction to Mirror Speech? - Noun / Verb
It was intriguing to consider Nicholas’ stance that UI should be based on verbal context. Give an icon for a noun on the left side. Then dynamically render relevant actions (verbs) with associated icons to the right. For example, say you went with the noun of MSFT Word — then you picked (from the dynamic set of actions allowed with that noun) the verb of file open. Wham. You then in one click launch MSFT Word with that document. “Thats just like double click in explorer” you say. True, but the power is that ANY verb supported by the noun is possible in a similar efficiency not just a default double click = open. Think actions like = print, merge, compare, email, etc. That said most of the examples in the video are around iTunes (e.g. noun genre - verb play). 2. Forget “Ribbon” or Menu Fast Path - Noun/Verb? If you hate how MSFT Office 2007 has broken all your fast path keys (unless you remember them by heart) raise your hand. [Tim raises both of his hands]. Not sure why MSFT felt they couldn’t enable both user personas in Office (power user and layman) but they didn’t. Instead they sacrificed one group (power users and their fast path keys) for another. In hindsight, however, if you had quicksilver the power user could have their interaction style (key driven via noun/verb in an office application) while those that don’t know what they want can hunt and peck around in the static ribbon and it’s hierarchy. So in any app you just hit some combo key (ALT-Q?) and Quicksilver would launch with the Noun of that app. Then you get the search with real time results feel like the start menu in Vista but with the possible verbs in that app. If I could do that I might forgive MSFT for their Ribbon. 3. Constellation .. Visual Drill Down? Another interesting UI concept shown by Nicholas was creating (1) showing noun/verb as a circle with the verbs like petals off the core of noun and then (2) allowing the user to drill into petals (verbs) which then created a new noun/verb layer over the existing one. What was interesting about this is that is allows users to keep a much more visual context in place of where they came from and the ability to roll back in the layers of noun-verb very quickly. Far better than todays model of breadcrumb hierarchy representations (think Vista’s file explorer model). I have also seen a similar UI concept on Doug McCune’s excellent Flex UI model called “Tile UIDesktop”. About 45 seconds into his 3 minute demo of that he starts showing how his implementation of ‘petal’ actions around a selected object on his UIdestop (the ‘noun’) works. Really gives you a sense of the smooth interaction of the noun/verb concept in a petal format could work. The true efficiency in his is around the fact that when you right click (I assume that is the event) to expose the available petals (verb) for the selected object (noun) it presents itself right where your mouse is. Classic Mac design … no extra mouse movements. Just a slight flick of your mouse, click, and go. Very nice. |
In short, this Interaction model of Noun/Verb coupled with UI constructs like petals (e.g. McCune’s example) in my mind could quickly trump classical menu path models. Why have a fixed menu structure. Let it be dynamic (if no noun/object is selected allow it to be anything like quicksilver). Here are some images of quicksilver / constellation.
What do you think?
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Quicksilver
GoogleVideo
–File finder
–Extra fields
–Play it
–Left side is app
–Right side is actions on the app
–Sometimes 3
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–Noun, verb, indirect object …
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–Search, Summon (search for object and open), browse (hiearchy, search to hierarchy node then drill), acting (file–>compress–>new object)
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–Fast universal access (like a google)
–Not just files/web pages/contacts/people
–where data is (local, cloud, etc)
–index backup / stickit
–search this page … my content .. jump to it
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–ignore boundries of apps
–app package is meaningless … abstract file system … case by case by apps … show just mp3s ..
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–Acts w/o doing
–Way w/ applications (talk)
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–Find something and get there
–not complex apps (like photoshop)
–Simple apps like email
–automater …builds of chains of actions
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–services layer … apple … put in to allow manipulate of anycontent
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–enzo launcher for windows
–ask for word … define
–override ..
–context … makes flexibility
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–add todo
–get milk
–to file
–dont leave the app … do in context
–quicksilver is transparent
–act w/o doing
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–Act w/o doing
–Effortless flow of how the systems work
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–How fast you can go
–limit on search isn’t optimization
–limit will become users speed of typing
–worry about what is the right thing
–abbreviation mashing
–dont type full spaces … prefix … apho .. gets photoshop
–it learns
–apho goes w/ you … your TLAs
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–How much stuff
–Get at data and functionality
–Growing
–airport locations for example is mixed in
–control and manipulate the data .. pipe between apps
–initial version building
–ton of code per app interfaces… shell scripts … app
–move to plug in
–specific app … actions …
–Actions come from plugin
–create new objects by actions
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–actions are objects
–noun verbs are same
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—magic and mystery … UI blog … mike krymenski …
–make it seems like it just works
–alchemy … interesting way to go
–Abracadabra & Constellations … CMU last year … students … simple gesture system .. not intelligent .. watch draw .. match to pattern
–mouse based interaction
–constellation (show the things and navigate) … like mccune .. better in that he allowed layers of circles .. drill .. new layer on top
–explore it
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–build into quicksilver
–constellation in was hard … to quicksilver
–new framework called alchemey .. access plugins .. exist with it
–when you are programming
–clutter
–letting people do search for actions
–actions ..specify a noun .. specify current context as the noun
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–Google
–Interconnect the apps
–Email into GMail
–Very hardcoded
–Google could build a suite around this model
–# of search boxes on a machine … all search different … same behavior … contextual search … could tie into universal
–Search contacts and act on them
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