On 2015-02-22 20:11, Jonathan Wilkes wrote:

> [...]
> 2) When the DE's main menu pops
> up, will the user be able to _immediately_ start typing characters
> and see a list of applications filtered to match what is being
> typed?
> [...]    

Hello there,

I am aware of two ways to achieve this, which are not mentioned
in this thread yet.

Both of it is used in the Xubuntu-based distro Voyager which is also
using XFCE as default DE.

Whiskermenu:
http://www.leaseweblabs.com/2014/04/new-xfce-features-xubuntu-14-04-trusty-tahr/

Slingshot:
http://www.noobslab.com/2014/06/slingscold-launcher-is-now-available.html

Apart from that the usability team could also consider if they want to
include a drop-down terminal like Tilda. A few XFCE linux distros also
include a directory menu in the top panel by default, with the home user
directory as base directory and * as file pattern to show all files
and directories below the user folder. I think that's quite neat as
well.

Best,
Wolfgang