On how primary function becomes secondary

Over the last month, I’ve been slowly expanding my list of testers who are helping me with Hyperspaces. Initially, most of the testers viewed Hyperspaces as a novelty (which it is), but didn’t leave it running. They’d test whether a new build worked, and then go back to what they were doing. It was an interesting thing to watch: I’d poured months and months of my time into making the visual space switcher function properly, and nobody was really using it.

Does it show a near real-time overview of what’s happening on all of your spaces? Check.
Does it use nearly no CPU? Check.
Does it look good? myyeeeeah — it’s not terrible.

Initially, I didn’t pay much attention to what was happening here, and just plowed through adding in some of what I considered to be secondary features. This included the ability to set a different desktop image, a tinted colour overlay and text labels on each of your spaces.

It turns out I was seriously off-base with what people actually miss from VirtueDesktops and it’s ilk. The big ticket item that seems to be missing from Apple’s implementation with Spaces is context: Which space am I currently working in?

Anyhow, those are just my observations — don’t assume that you know what’s important based solely upon your own experience and ideas. In my case, this wasn’t time lost or wasted — the technical work involved in gathering information about how Spaces works is used just about everywhere in Hyperspaces, and once I’ve released the app, I’ll share a lot of what I’ve learned so that others can benefit from that research.

Now before Neil has a go at me for not releasing a public beta before WWDC — because apparently he’s not too keen on attending with a “has been” — I am serious about getting Hyperspaces into your hands as soon as I can, but I’m not going to release something that is almost good enough. I’m almost there, and you can help me — I’m about to build the final visuals for the switcher, and I’d appreciate some feedback.

Here’s how it looks in 1.0 alpha build 404 (heh — yes, I see it too):

Current Hyperspaces switcher

It functions much as you’d expect — you click on a space to switch to it. The active space shows a live-updating image of your current space, and the others show ghosted representations of your windows. Everything is drawn using CoreAnimation, so transitions of window positions smoothly fade in and out as window positions change on other spaces.

Here are my rough ideas mocked up using Fireworks for where this is could head:

The QuickSilver concept

The first is a QuickSilver-style window that would include other functionality and configuration options:

QuickSilver-style switcher idea

The HUD concept

The second (and my current front-runner with a bit more polish) is this black, hud-like window. It also reflects some of the design elements of Hyperspaces very, very unique icon which I’ll be introducing before the week is out.

HUD-style switcher idea

Leave your thoughts in the comments.

∞
Posted: June 5, 2008 at 01:35
Tagged: Hyperspaces, Mac

Comments

I much prefer the HUD option, the shiny black seems to go more with the direction that some of the Apple apps are going too, e.g. the clock widget and iPhoto’s fullscreen mode. Looking forward to getting my hands on it :)

Posted by lazyllama on June 5, 2008 at 02:39

I don’t care at all for Spaces, but the HUD rendition is much better looking.

Posted by Huperniketes on June 5, 2008 at 04:02

Contrary to popular opinion, it would seem, I prefer the Quicksilver theme. It’s simple, clear and I find the space names easier to read. I’m assuming that it would have the same features (live windows in the active space and ghosted windows in the inactive spaces) as are being shown in the HUD version.

Posted by Rob Wilkerson on June 5, 2008 at 04:22

The HUD looks hot.
I think you are right about giving context to spaces. The ability to give each space a different flavour makes this app appealing to me.
No public beta before WWDC …FAIL! Just kidding ;) take your time, make it good.

Posted by Neil on June 5, 2008 at 07:43

@Rob Wilkerson: both switchers would have base functionality that’s very similar, so yes — the live windows, ghosted reps, etc would all be part of both pagers.
Sounds like they’re both getting some support… perhaps I need to build the switcher a little more flexible than I had originally planned? Eeeennnteresting.

Posted by Tony Arnold on June 5, 2008 at 08:00

Personally, I like as little chrome as possible on a pager. The HUD look, if trimmed back a bit, could be just that.

Posted by Don on June 5, 2008 at 08:18

The HUD looks great!

Posted by Faceless on June 7, 2008 at 02:28

The HUD look is in my opinion the most pleasent to the eye. The look from the Alpha Build has some resemblance with the Windows Logo and therefore deserves a single journey into the round archive ;-)
Still what i would like to see in Hyperspaces is a way to wrap the spaces around a cube just as the compiz-fusion 3D desktop does. But for a pager style switcher i tend to go for the HUD look.

Posted by Gee Threeforce on June 11, 2008 at 03:43

Yea, I prefer the Quicksilver version. It would be great if both the Quicksilver &HUD versions made it in there & you could choose which one you want to use in the Preferences.

Posted by Jono on June 15, 2008 at 20:27

I prefer the HUD style. And if you want a private beta tester who will keep Hyperspace running, I’m your man ;-) (Was looking for a solution to give and display names for a space, and this looks just right!)

Posted by Reinier on June 20, 2008 at 17:19

Hi Tony, I thought I would offer a little feedback from the perspective of somebody who is not a coder, but a wannabe power user. I have looked long and hard for something to make Spaces what it should be: Labels; unique desktop background images for each space; and unique desktops themselves for each space. By that last one, I mean that all the icons for folders, URLs, and files that are one desktop aren’t merely mirrored for all the rest; each Space’s desktop should be able to have its own unique set of stuff.
In Hyperspaces, I wonder if the floating pager is de rigueur, because some people may find it too clutter-some. People like myself are used to hitting F8 for the ‘Space effect’. It may be impossible for you to get that far down into the gears of Spaces to hijack it completely, I don’t know, but I personally would prefer a hot key invoke as opposed to a floating pager invoke. (And I also wonder if the reason your testers get out of Hyperspaces is to rid themselves of a window that they sub-consiously find clutter-some? Clutter, after all, is the raison d’etre for Spaces/Hyperspaces in the first place.)
I haven’t seen my third wishlist item — unique icons for each desktop — mentioned. So I assume it’s the hardest to implement. (Apple should have done this themselves IMO.) I hope this might be on the roadmap.
Re: Switcher styles: The overall elegant polish of the HUD style is more appealing, but I prefer the labeling style of Quicksilver. The label stands out better above or below the image, instead of in it.

Posted by B.M. Smith on June 23, 2008 at 07:44

Hi B.M. — thanks for letting me know how you’d like to see Hyperspaces evolve — I really appreciate constructive feedback!
To answer your questions:
The switcher doesn’t have to be on screen all of the time — it’s up to you. You can use it like the Spaces overview (F8), or leave it on screen. I find I use mine like the Spaces overview, mainly because the switcher consumes a small amount of CPU while it’s running;
You’re correct — per-space desktop icons is not part of the feature set for Hyperspaces 1.0. VirtueDesktops used to do this by moving your ‘Desktop’ folder away whenever you changed between virtual desktops, and replaced it with a folder stored under your ‘Application Support’ directory. I almost had a heart attack when I found that code! Until I can find a safe way to implement this, it’s up to Apple;
I’ve settled on the HUD switcher style, but I’m looking at a few tweaks — placing the space label below it’s representation in the switcher is one of those tweaks, so watch this space!

Posted by Tony Arnold on June 23, 2008 at 08:24

Hey Tony,
Another vote for the HUD style. Love the look of it, and the new icon you have for Hyperspaces. =) Really looking forward to the release of this software. (And if you need anymore beta testers, please let me know! =) )

Posted by Randall Wong on June 25, 2008 at 07:56

Sorry, this conversation has finished.

This post is a bit old now, so I've closed the conversation. If you're keen to keep talking about it, please email me directly.