Alt+Tab transitions are tiring if used often

[Sergey "Shnatsel" Davidoff]

Alt+Tab transitions are tiring if used often. It's not easy to grasp what just happened, and the whole thing is kinda disorienting. We should probably replace the transition with something simpler, like a fade-in.

This was originally pointed out at http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/elementary-os-luna-beta-1-available-for.html#comment-788843587

[Harvey Cabaguio (harveycabaguio)]

Yes, the windows fading in would be much nicer.

[Adolfo Jayme Barrientos (fitojb)]

I agree with this report. Things like this make me think that Elementary seems to prefer fanciness over functionality…

[Danielle Foré (danrabbit)]

I'm not sure I understand the report. The windows do fade in.

[Kingsley (kingsquee)]

As they're currently set up, alt-tab's design seems to assume the user will slowly switch between alt-tab windows, with the transitions making the previewing a less jarring experience. In practice, however, most users alt-tab very rapidly. When used like this, the transitions try to fade-in every window immediately upon tabbing, create a flashing effect that's very distracting and unpleasant.

Windows 7 solved this by displaying the window list immediately, with the window preview fading in if the user stays on a window list entry for about a second. In other words, a delay before the window preview is shown.

I'm not sure this solution will work well here though, since Win7's alt-tab window list appears in the center of the screen, and elementary's replaces the dock. It may simply confuse users?

[Kingsley (kingsquee)]

An option may be to add alt-tab window selection to the already existing Expose' feature. I would personally love this - why do we need two window switchers anyway?

[Eddie Dunn (eddie-dunn)]

Has this issue been forgotten? It's still present in Freya.

[Markus Padourek (markus-padourek)]

Yeah, it seems there are a few bugs listed about the Alt+Tab feature and it would be really great to get this somehow to work more like OS X, Ubuntu default etc.

The one feature that continuously disorients during work.