One of the things that made the old Gnome main menu convenient/efficient was that applications could be organised into categories and subcategories that could be quickly browsed with the mouse, and easily edited using the menu editor. I think it would be ideal if similar functionality existed for the applications lens.
Specifically, what would work best for me would be an option to set up the applications lens as follows:
- Group 1: Favourites/frequently used (as it is now)
- Group 2: Application categories (Accessories, Games, Office, etc.)
(I find the current sections drop-down less efficient than the old-style menu, where the mouse movement was (almost) linear - the mouse has to be moved across the screen to click on the drop-down, then a section is selected, and then the mouse is moved back to the icons in the lens.)
After choosing a category, the setup could be the same as one sees now after choosing a section, although I'd like to see room for sub-categories as well. For example, in the Gnome main menu, I had the Games category divided into subcategories including Arcade, Cards, Puzzles, etc. Then, if I knew I wanted to play an arcade game, (but hadn't decided which one) I could click on the Applications Lens, then Games, then Arcade, and be able to browse only those games instead of all (32, in my case) games.
The Software Centre already supports subcategories such as these, so the 'Apps available for download' could be more specifically targeted as well. It might also be cool if a subcategory could be pinned to the launcher as a specialized applications lens. For example, if I was addicted to puzzle games, I could have a 'Puzzles' lens on the launcher.
Finally, in a perfect world, I would be able to use a program such as alacarte to edit which applications appear in the Applications lens, and how they are organized. For example, if I also have KDE installed, I may wish to hide all the KDE apps while using Unity (as far as I can tell, I can't do this at the moment) and I probably don't want subcategories for a section like Office where I only have 5 or 6 programs installed.
I confess to making these suggestions as an end-user and not a coder, so I don't know how realistic they are, but in my case at least I think it would make the applications lens a lot more intuitive and efficient.
Just in case you don't know, right-clicking the Applications Place icon gives you a list of categories to choose.