When no project is open, Scrivener shows (by default) previews of the available templates.
However, I think that you more often deal with existing projects, rather than with templates for new projects. Therefore, I would find very useful being able to see a preview of the recent projects, rather than empty templates.
Having those projects always in front of you, as if they were dossiers of non-completed works-in-progress, makes one remember there are open works to complete. It would be a call for returning to work. The current drop-down menu is not as effective, as it is too hidden, with no face calling you.
My main concern with this is that depicting icon or preview representations of files within a software window is that it can lead less technically inclined people toward believing there files are inside that window, or the software itself. Having them listed in a Recent Project menu is almost confusing enough, let alone the auto-reload. You see a lot of this after Microsoft started presenting a nice fancy list of the .doc files you’ve worked on recently. Now the .doc files are “in” Word; never mind the list of icons clearly states “Recent Documents” at the top.
Then this leads to two points of potential panic, one venerable and one more modern. The former is when a project is no longer classified as “recent”, or the rather volatile OS X maintained list of recent projects is damaged and reset. It (or all of them) disappear from the handy list, and hyperventilation ensues. Scrivener deleted my novel! No, it’s just not being depicted as an icon any more. The latter, more modern problem has been foisted upon us by poorly designed mobile operating system data models which inextricably combine data with software. It made sense when the software was “My Stock Ticker”, but it’s unbelievably stupid when the software is “OmniGraffle for iPad”. Yet, that’s what we are stuck with, and a new rather large generation of people that think if you reinstall your software or accidentally delete it everything you’ve done with it is lost!. You can’t blame the people, these are natural assumptions to make because that is how stuff is presented to them. If you aren’t crystal clear on what a file is (let alone a project, or even that there are projects, plural), why wouldn’t you assume these things?
These are things that we already have to struggle against all of the time now, and I’m scared of anything that brokers a greater illusion between software somehow magically containing data files.
Well, that’s my two cents any way.
Meanwhile, for those of us that know what a file is: try using the File/Find All Projects in Spotlight menu command in Scrivener and set the display in the Finder window to Icon. .scriv icons are pretty informative, and Quick Look even more so. Save that as a search in your Finder sidebar and you’ve got a pretty nice browsing mechanism.