I thought of an idea for an additional user interface for Safari 5.0’s download progress. As of now the only way to see what is downloading or has been downloaded is to have a Safari window open and click on the Download button in the tool bar. My idea would be to have the Safari icon in the dock to show a progress bar of the download(s) similar to what happens when you download an App from the App Store. In addition to that, when you right-click on the Safari icon there is a sub-menu that shows the downloads. Here are some conceptual mock-ups:
Current UI:
Take Launchpad’s Progress:
And Meld That Into Safari’s:
Combined With New Sub-Menu:
What do you think?
Winged Boar Pub 
Great idea. I was just searching for a plugin/hack to do this. Your mockup of Safari dock icon with download progress is exactly how it should be.