My take on Dashboard: Multiple Desktops done differently
Better late than never i guess… First let me repeat what i already mentioned briefly in a previous post: i don’t consider dashboard a konfabulator ripoff. Sure, the technical underpinnings are pretty similar, but basically i don’t think that a desktop javascript runtime engine with html frontend is such a novell or unique idea (anyone remembers active deskop?).
Above all i see dashboard as apples take on multiple desktops. A twisted and radically different take on multiple desktops. I still don’t know wether i like it or not. Ironically, i considered expose as apples answer to multiple desktops when it was introduced last year. Now they’re really integrating some kind of a second desktop into expose. As i understand it, the dashboard is sort of a secondary desktop for performing simple and quick tasks and for easy access to small blurbs of information.
The two main areas of conflict with mac os x as i see them are the following: first, and this has been pointed out by many others before me, i think that with the low entry barrier to creating widgets in html+css+javascript and the lack of standard gui elements, ui conventions will go over board and we’ll be flooded by worthless, ugly widgets, making it more difficult to find the hidden jewels of dashboard widgets. If i wanted ugly, unpolished apps i could use linux or windows, thanks. And if you don’t believe me, believe your own eyes and go to dashboarder, a site hosting some early third-party dashboard widgets, most of them hideous in appearance. I doubt there’s more than one widget in there that i’d actually use.
The second problem, as well spawned by the low entry barrier and somewhat connected to my former concern, is there’ll be a lot of apps not fitting into the dashboard widget paradigm. As mentioned before, i consider the dashboard screen a secondary desktop for quick interaction. You won’t spend half your time in front of the computer in dashboard, i’m fairly certain about that. Stuff like movie players or rss readers just don’t fit in, but those are certainly among the earlier widgets to appear. No one forces you to install a widget, of course, but users might be confused by such widgets and hindered in grasping the true potential of dashboard. Imho usability isn’t a matter of choice, but a matter of guiding the user, helping him to understand how to leverage the power of what he got in his hands.
And while i’m on the topic of dashboard, let me also mention a different dashboard application, which is part of the gnome project. It’s an implicit search engine for your desktop that automatically queries local and online data according to the context you’re working in, e.g. you’re iming with a buddy about that fabulous new bag you just found, and it’ll dig out your friends contact details, earlier im conversations on the same topic and online search results for the bag you’re talking about. I didn’t give it a try yet (afaik only available in the gnome cvs), but as far as i understand it, this could be a killer (apple) dashboard app. Whenever you want some further information about anything you’re doing right now, just activate your dashboard and automatically get search results relevant to what you’re doing. If the spotlight api turns out to be as great as i hope, this might actually work and i’m racking my brain already how to gather and filter the relevant information from your desktop. Applescript? Plugin api? I don’t have a clue, but hopefully someone smarter than me figures it out, and better sooner than later.