Good evening.
As I promised, today I’ll show you my interface concept for Mer applications/task swithcing menu, or simply Mer Menu. Details after the break.
First of all we need a scalable menu that will work in both portrait and landscape modes. Also I’ve added a quick launch area (like “Dock” on the iPhone) that will appear even if task switcher is launched for immediate acces for hot apps like phone or anything else. Then, I thought that it would be great to add shortcuts not only to the applications but also for different folders. And return categories for better organisation. So as a result we’ll have something like this:
Quick launch area, pannable applications area. Blue circles are categories. You can set up menu thru hildon menu, just like any other app or homescreen. That’s how it will look in portrait mode:
And this is how task switcher will look like:
Well, that’s all for now, tomorrow I’ll show some thoughts about statusbar area. Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow.
Maemo UI improvements blog. 
There could be one more column on the first screenshot (a lot of empty space between the icons) but it looks very pretty!
Keep up the good work!
Comment by DaSilva — December 28, 2009 @ 00:59
Noob question: how does Mer relate to Maemo6?
Comment by Viipottaja — December 28, 2009 @ 02:34
Absolutely beautiful. Gorgeous…
Only nit-pick, lower row (quick launch area) in the first screenshot is not standing out visually. Initially I thought they are part of the icon rows of the Menu… But it looks very beautiful. I love the oxygen icons…
Comment by pns — December 28, 2009 @ 07:12
Man, that looks great! Really, really good stuff.
@Viipottaja: Mer is “Maemo Reloaded”, the community’s version of maemo – everyone is welcomed to be involved.
Comment by Jeremiah C. Foster — December 28, 2009 @ 14:22
Looks very very good. Great work!
Comment by Cales Norin — December 28, 2009 @ 15:09
This is so great, I only have one question though… when exactly is mer gona be ready for us to put on our N8x0 tablets. also judging from the last screen shoot is this gona be for both the N900 and the N8x0 tablest?
Comment by Jonathan — December 28, 2009 @ 16:12
Jeremiah,
thanks! So (to be a bit provocative), this will have nothing to do with the main stream consumer then, _unless_ Nokia decides to pick up bits and pieces of it and incorporate it to Maem0 6, OR, unless some of it is used in installable apps?
Comment by Viipottaja — December 28, 2009 @ 17:48
My understanding is that all the graphics are licensed under the Creative Commons license, so anyone can use them. I doubt Nokia will use them, but I am sure they are welcome to do so. :)
These graphics are going into the Mer Operating system which is a little more open version of Maemo.
Comment by Jeremiah C. Foster — December 29, 2009 @ 17:29
Thanks.
My point is that as Maemo is going mainstream and most users have never even used Linux and have never even heard of Mer, these graphics, as gorgeous as they are, are unlikely to have any wide distribution/use, unless Nokia picks them for its use/adapts them to its UI.
For example, I would not have a clue how to actually put these onto my N900.
Comment by Viipottaja — December 29, 2009 @ 17:44
[…] New task switcher and dock. December 28, 2009 Jay Montano Leave a comment Go to comments Andrew Zhilin brings us his concept of Mer User Interface for the N900. What is Mer? “Mer is an outgrowth […]
Pingback by N900 Mer UI – Portrait, New task switcher and dock. « My Nokia Blog — December 28, 2009 @ 21:14
As always, your mock-ups look gorgeous :)
Comment by thp — December 28, 2009 @ 21:27
This is just awesome! Can’t wait to get into testing that beaty!
Comment by ighea — December 28, 2009 @ 22:22
Amazing. At first I was thinking – what’s that huge resolution he’s using? Then realizing it’s the standard 800×480 :-D
There’s a feeling of a lot of nice detail being shown… Great stuff.
Comment by autoguy — December 28, 2009 @ 22:52
[…] Andrew Zhilin brings us his concept of Mer User Interface for the N900. What is Mer? “Mer is an outgrowth of Nokia’s Maemo environment, designed to flesh out the tablet-centric operating system into a full-fledged Linux distribution suitable for embedded and desktop systems of all description.” […]
Pingback by All the Phone Information » Blog Archive » N900 Mer UI – Portrait, New task switcher and dock. — December 29, 2009 @ 04:42
Very nice !!!
Comment by Tux-planet — December 29, 2009 @ 18:06
[…] 2010 UI countdown. #4 – Mer Menu Good evening. As I promised, today I’ll show you my interface concept for Mer applications/task swithcing menu, […] […]
Pingback by Top Posts — WordPress.com — December 30, 2009 @ 03:10
It does not seem to have widgets?
Also, laying out icons in simple grid, makes desktop view a bit anonymous compared to current maemo5?
Comment by Jussi — December 30, 2009 @ 10:24
Is this going to be an official look of some feature versions of mer or is it just an idea?
Are you somehow related to mer project?
This looks awsome… like everything on this page :P
Good work
Comment by Deafboy2v1 — June 6, 2010 @ 00:46