ui design

I spent some time reviewing UI design work on Views 3 (And Acquia Gardens "Data pages") UI concepts:

• "Views 3 UX Season is open", February 2010, Yoroy
• "Views 3 UX workflows and ideas, round 1", April 2010, Rasskull
• "View3 UI explorations, part 2", July 2010, Yoroy
• Acquia Gardens "Data Page" concept mockups, Jeff Noyes?
• "More Views 3 concepts", July 2010, Jeff Noyes

NOTE: I have not read all of (or even very much of) the related discussion, so am likely missing important developments.

There are some great "sky-high" ideas in most of these. However I think it's likely that all of them will run into issues as or more significant than the current UI, in that either;

• They will be be too restrictive upon advanced functionality and features and make them difficult or hacky to include in the (in the case of Gardens, that is likely intentional, as advanced features are probably not supported);
• They will have similar types of unforeseen issues to the current UI. Subtle and seemingly minor nuances or even features that actually make a big impact on the UX.

This is a working thread to discuss the (still far in the future) Panels 3 UI. I want to get work started on ideas to improve the existing UI, and for the moment we are allowed to go pie in the sky and suggest features. Please assume that pie in the sky features will eventually be shot down, though, but it's on the table because sometimes pie in the sky can really work or be made to work.