"The first step is to install Wbar, a desktop add-on
that provides an attention-getting animated application-launch
function.
"Since Wbar's animated-icon dock would need to occupy the bottom
of the desktop, made room there by eliminating Ubuntu's lower
taskbar/launcher panel. To do this, I merged the functions normally
divided between the desktop's upper and lower panels into a single,
upper panel. This was easy to do, using functions available by
right-clicking on each of the panels."