NOTE: This proposal is an updated version of the F-Spot Gegl proposal
[1], retargeted towards visible usability work.

The F-Spot sidebar currently acts as a tag browser, with some minimal
image information. I would like to change the behavior of this to a more
versatile design, where the sidebar can perform multiple actions
depending on the context. This would allow integration of an image
information pane, editing commands, external sources, ... This is based
on jimmac's mockups [2].

One of the main problems I would like to address is the poor usability
of the editing toolbar near the bottom of the Edit Image view. Turning
this view into a sidebar pane, like Picasa would increase
discoverability of the editing commands.

As a side goal, it should become far easier to add new editing commands
through plugins. I will convert the editor commands to use F-Spot's
plugin architecture.

Ongoing work can be found in the form of a first-draft patch [3]. As
such, the first step would be to review and integrate this patch. This
will serve as a starting point towards improving the usability of
F-Spot. I will focus on the editors first, but I would also like to
improve the image information display.