Today on the train I played around with Inkscape for the first time. I wanted to make some mockups of possible layouts for the GimmieBar, the thing at the edge of your screen that lists the currently opened (or bookmarked) applications, documents, and people.
All of the layouts I’ve been toying with have certain deficiencies, and I wanted to sketch them out so I wouldn’t lose track. In the end, this turned out well enough to solicit feedback, so please tell me what you think!
Assume these are aligned with the bottom edge of your screen…
I favor the Option #1 for it’s simplicity, and large predictable button targets. It has a small height profile since only the bottommost buttons stay on top of windows.
Option #3 is my second runner up. Here, the black buttons take the place of the browsers buttons. It has a smaller overall height profile, and I think it looks cute. It may be the best option when placed along the side of the screen, since people dislike vertical text (anyone know of some evidence on this?)
Option #2, though most visually appealing to me, has several overwhelmingly bad characteristics, so it’s probably out of the running.
Inkscape is a really amazing app. I actually forgot that I was using free software, which is very rare indeed.