![headsup-display-hud-to-replace-application-menus-in-unity-[ubuntu-news] photo 1](http://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/gg/up/sshot4f1edb0d9625d.jpg "Heads-Up Display (HUD) to Replace Application Menus in Unity [Ubuntu News] photo 1")
Mark Shuttleworth has made an announcement introducing a new UI enhancment in the upcoming 12.04 LTS release. Application menus will be replaced by a new Heads-Up Display (HUD) that utilizes an intelligent search-based approach to access the menu items you need and expands on the Unity experience.
Image courtesy of Mark Shuttleworth’s Blog.
From Mark’s blog post: This is the HUD. It’s a way for you to express your intent and have the application respond appropriately. We think of it as “beyond interface”, it’s the “intenterface”. This concept of “intent-driven interface” has been a primary theme of our work in the Unity shell, with dash search as a first class experience pioneered in Unity. Now we are bringing the same vision to the application, in a way which is completely compatible with existing applications and menus.
The HUD concept has been the driver for all the work we’ve done in unifying menu systems across Gtk, Qt and other toolkit apps in the past two years. So far, that’s shown up as the global menu. In 12.04, it also gives us the first cut of the HUD.
You can see the new Heads-Up Display (HUD) in action in the following video.
This is definitely going to be a step above and beyond the work already done with Unity. What are your thoughts on the new Heads-Up Display (HUD)? Do you think this is a good direction for Ubuntu or do you feel it will alienate users? Is this a good enhancement for Unity or a step further in the wrong direction? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Bonus
You can try out the new Heads-Up Display (HUD) in Ubuntu 12.04 now by visiting the Ubuntu Vibes blog post linked below for installation details!
Introducing the HUD. Say hello to the future of the menu. [via OMG! Ubuntu! and Ubuntu Vibes]
Introducing the HUD to Ubuntu [YouTube]