Subwindows, splitwindows, tabs about patchwork HOT 19 CLOSED

I'm not sold on the subwindow UI, but they were already built.

I'm inclined to think what we really need is tabbed browsing, or some kind of window-manager.
I mocked up a tiling window-manager:

Homepage on left, inbox on right.

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The blob page uses the tiling window manager:

If you want to try it, nav to &suZsSsRXjVGCB3HrJKv2/HFe15JTTtIl20wXouUSWmU=.sha256 and click the comments icon next to the location bar. The sideview shows all the comments which link to that blob.

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Google hangouts uses a sidenav for multiple active conversations:

We can consider a similar pattern, in which the left nav is the home feed or inbox feed. The right area would show the current content.

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Here's a mockup of what a feed-as-nav might look like:

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Mocked up a sidenav-based UI. Keep scrolling for an explanation of the parts:

The sidenav would be persistent (though collapsable).
It would help you navigate through threads.
It would update in realtime.

Clicking a thread in the sidenav would open it in the content area.
The content area would browse independently of the sidenav.

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An example of a mainstream app with a tiling layout is tweetdeck.
This actually works pretty well, without most of the weird bugs that twitter.com has.
you can manage many accounts, and it also has keyboard shortcuts for power users!
They don't work perfectly, sometimes it looses focus, but it is a pretty powerful interface!

by default you have columns, and you can expand a post.
In the screenshot I have expanded one of the messages in the notifications column

Columns this narrow probably wouldn't work for us, because we have longer messages.
but 2 column, where the left is the feed and the right is the expanded might work well.
as in your wireframes.

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by the way, the subwindow looks really great. it's so familiar it really feels like you are sending a message.
How it separates from the background suits that. it's for private messages, and visually separated from the shared messages.

I agree with your conclusion that it's not really suited to the expanded view, because of that visual separation.

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@dominictarr ok cool, I'll take that as a +1 for subwindows (in some capacity)

I'm checking out tweetdeck. First impressions are positive. Manages to be both more powerful and cleaner than default twitter. (Customizable columns are very nice.)

What if we did...
Window-manager with column tiles.
Default layout as I drew above:

• two columns
• multiple feed-views stacked left
• the main content-browser right

The stacked sidenav sections could be dragged out into new columns.
All columns could be re-arranged.

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I'm definately 👍 on subwindows in the case of secret messages. but not for replies.

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Experiment branch for a sidepane nav, WIP shot:

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More work on the sidenav, showing read/unread state:

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Multiple sidenav views (home, inbox, your stars):

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New UI experiment, focusing more on Patchwork as a browser.

Here's the home screen. It's similar to the launcher view when you open a new tab in chrome or FF, but it shows users instead of sites. (Though, because users publish pages in this concept, they basically are sites.)

Right of the location bar (top) is a dropdown. This lets you select different views for the content you're on.

The home screen gives you some basic high-level views: the launcher, the home feed, network status page, and raw data feed. Whatever view you select will be the same view used the next time you go home.

The main reason for the view selection is for when you're browsing content:

You can jump to other kinds of information that's related. For instance, the discussion view would show conversations that link to the blob. This could be a good place for backlink views.

By default, when you nav to a user, you'll see their published homepage. (Published homepages are explained in the pitch I linked above.)
If you wanted to see their posts, friends, etc, you'd jump to their profile view.

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Video walkthrough of the current experiment

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I wasn't fully in love with that view dropdown, so I decided to simplify a bit:

The homepage now has a fixed links bar, which can take you to some common apps.
User pages now look like this:

The sidepanel can be toggled by clicking the blue question mark on the nav bar:

I decided to remove the files UIs until we decide whether to use a files abstraction, or a bundle/package one.

There's currently not a way to view posts by a single user (which is what a user page used to show). The news feed app could do that -- click a user's profile on the right column to filter down to their posts.

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Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?

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Moved more out of the navbar and into the home launch shortcuts

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Site publisher UI:

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Video demonstration of the publisher

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