For virtual desktops I always liked the original animation OS X used for that back in 10.5 and 10.6, where the camera pulled back to show an overhead view of yo

For virtual desktops I always liked the original animation OS X used for that back in 10.5 and 10.6, where the camera pulled back to show an overhead view of your grid of desktops, including miniaturized versions of all of your windows. It did well to establish the idea that your current desktop was just a portion of a much larger surface, and by switching desktops you were changing the portion you were working in. It also leveraged spatial memory, as many Mac UI features over the years have. The implementation in current versions of macOS, which is your typical linear setup similar that found in GNOME, is harder to conceptualize for users because its animations don’t communicate nearly as effectively, plus by default desktops move around based on frequency of usage which screws with spatial memory.