Re: Look and Feel

[Frederico Muñoz]

On 2005-02-15 09:37:55 +0000 Markus Hitter <mah@jump-ing.de> wrote:


[...]
>> I'm not against having the option, but I must stress that when looking at 
>> the mockup the floating menu  doesn't subtract nothing, but instead adds 
>> grace, function and charisma.
> 
> The big advantage, supported by research results, of a menu attached to a 
> screen edge is, you have to adjust your mouse movement in one direction only, 
> in the other direction the screen border is your guide.  Horizontal menus on 
> the top border reduce the required accuracy of mouse movement even further, 
> because the size of the menu normal to the required movement is typically 
> bigger.
> 
> This is always an advantage but competes with the need of a possibly very 
> long mouse movement on large screens.


Yes, I see the point, Fitz's Law and all that, but I'm assuming that the 
vertical, floating menu is available on right click, wherever the user has the 
pointer. This would make this kind of menu the simplest to use because the 
mouse movement is reduced to the minimum, since the menu appears under the 
current position.

I can imagine that it's possible to have a horizontal menu and still retain 
this behaviour, but IMHO it's more consistent to have it always in the 
floating, vertical fashion, since it will look better when the user detaches 
part of the submenus. But a compromise is certainly possible.

Do note that this UI design talks are all heavily IMHO, even when there are UI 
studies to support one or the other view. In this case  there is a reason we 
disagree: you want (and not without reason) to have GNUstep apps behave more or 
less at home in GNOME/KDE, I tend to prefer a distinct flavour. However I'm 
fully supportive of the so called "desktop bundles" that would make a GNUstep 
app modify the behabiour depending on the DE it is in. For the default look, 
however, I'm a firm and staunch supported of the vertical floating menus, not 
only for uniqueness but because I really do think that if you take what you 
said earlier about mouse movement, it's the superior solution.

Best regards, and thanks for your input,


fsmunoz
-- 
Frederico Muñoz
fsmunoz@gesal.org