We’re massive fans of Dock application ‘Docky’ here at OMG! Ubuntu! and one of the principle designers working on it is a young man with a wonderfully conceptual imagination by the name of ‘Dan Rabbit’.

Ubuntu 9.10 users will be likely using some of his artwork right now – the Humanity icon theme that is default in Karmic!

back on topic; I’m not here to least all of his wondrous achievements but simply share with you some his amazing Docky concept pieces.

Whilst, sadly/annoyingly/givethistomenow, these are still mock-ups, it shows a great spirit of design and UI flair that will not only benefit users of Docky by having him on board but, I’m sure, will make Dan a very wealthy man at some point!

So let’s take a gander!

VIDEO PLAYER

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Docky becomes a HUD control panel to the video player in this mock-up. Not only does this look great but it’s really logical and a functional use of the Dock – which likely wouldn’t be needed when viewing video.

Even more excitingly Dan says that something along these lines will be possible in Docky2. Wow!

MAPS

Docky_Maps_by_DanRabbit

The idea behind this is pretty self-explanatory and is a simple docklet affair.

AUDIO

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The important part of this mock-up for people thinking “Docky already has tooltips” is not the tooltip but what is inside the tooltip – a volume control slider!

PLACES

Places_in_Docky_by_DanRabbit

“Stacks!” is what some people may scream when seeing this but doesn’t rush judgement on it being a simple clone.

By integrating a “bread-crumb trail” is shows that this is more interactive than just a ‘stack’ – it’s a mini file-browser!

More

You can see more of Dans works over on his DeviantArt page @

http://danrabbit.deviantart.com/

You can install Docky from teh Docky Development PPA (sadly sans these great features) @

https://launchpad.net/~docky-core/+archive/ppa