Calum,
Like Sharon I also hate not knowing what web browser, mail app, word
processor, pdf viewer, etc. will be run from the launch menu. But then I
don't care to know the name of the on-screen keyboard app or other such
utilities. Given in that one case I want to know and that in the other
case I don't, and that I would learn most of the ones I care about
within a few uses, I wouldn't want choice 1.
Have I mentioned that I really don't care for the tooltips? They obscure
the menu, don't add useful information (the primary info about function
is already in the menu), and they are very touchy, disappearing and
reappearing with each little mouse move. I know that the Windows Start
menu has tooltips, but they are also much less touchy and add useful
information (the function isn't in the menu itself).
Choice 2 would be preferred, though it leads to wide menu entries. If
the menus do turn out to be really wide, choice 3 might be workable if
the tooltips were less touchy and they contained only the application
name. Then let me turn off the tooltips. ;-)
Frank
Calum Benson wrote:
> Ok, I guess all you (non-Sun) folks were a bit daunted by the thought
> of reviewing the whole UI spec proposal at
> www.gnome.org/~calum/nevada/ui-spec/index.htm :) But there's one
> particular issue that's been causing some debate here among the team,
> that we'd really like your feedback on.
>
> Based on David's comments in the original thread:
>
> On 9 Mar 2006, at 22:53, David-John Burrowes wrote:
>>>> Menu entry Tool tip
>>>> ---------- --------
>>>> Firefox Web Browser Browse the world wide web
>>>> Web Browser - Firefox Browse the world wide web
>>>> Web Browser Firefox: Browse the world wide web
>>>>
>>>> Any preferences? The main concerns I'd have with putting the app
>>>> name right on the menu is that (a) it might get a bit cluttered,
>>>> and (b) it might look a bit ugly on those menus where some app
>>>> names start with capitals (Firefox), and some with lower case
>>>> letters (jEdit)
>>
>> Certainly, I prefer the first. :-)
>
> the current spec includes the 'real' name of the app in its Launch
> menu entry, if that's how the app refers to itself in its main window,
> alert messages etc. Thus gedit is "Gedit Text Editor" and file-roller
> is "File-Roller Archive Manager", but gcalctool is just "Calculator",
> and gnome-terminal is just "Terminal". Main reasons that we thought
> this might be a good idea are:
>
> - Familiarises the user with an otherwise-unusual term that they'll
> probably see on the screen when they run the app, or when (heaven
> forbid!) something goes wrong
> - Distinguishes between two apps with the same functionality (e.g. two
> different text editors)
> - menus full of generic names can make the whole environment feel a
> little "cheap"
>
> However, in reviewing the spec internally again today, there was some
> concern that, because the menus are ordered alphabetically (and
> there's not a lot we can do about that right now), users who know
> they're looking for their "web browser" application (say) are now
> potentially hindered because it shows up under "F". Whereas, in other
> cases, their "Terminal" is still under "T", and their Calculator still
> under "C". Plus many menu items gain an extra word, which certainly
> doesn't help visual scan-ability (although it may not hinder it either).
>
> Alternative proposals were to put the application name after the
> functional name ("Web Browser - Firefox"), which might look a bit
> messy with all those hyphens scattered around the menu, or in the
> tooltip, which could be annoying if you were specifically looking for
> an application name, as there's an enforced delay before tooltips appear.
>
> So, the question to our OpenSolaris users is: which would /you/
> prefer? As an example, here's how the proposed Accessories and
> Internet menus would look in each of the three schemes (sorry, doesn't
> quite fit into 76 columns):
>
> Archive Manager Archive Manager - File-Roller
> Calculator
> Calculator Calculator
> Character Map
> Character Map Character Map Dasher
> Predictive Text Entry
> On-Screen Keyboard On-Screen Keyboard - GOK
> File-Roller Archive Manager
> PDA Synchronization PDA Synchronisation
> Gnopernicus Screen Reader/Magnifier
> Predictive Text Entry Predictive Text Entry - Dasher GOK
> On-Screen Keyboard
> Screen Reader/Magnifier Screen Reader/Magnifier - gnopernicus PDA
> Synchronisation
> Terminal Terminal Gedit
> Text Editor
> Text Editor Text Editor - Gedit Terminal
>
> Calendar and Task Manager* Calendar/Task Manager - Evolution Ekiga
> Video Conferencing
> Instant Messenger Instant Messenger - GAIM
> Evolution Mail and Calendar
> Java Web Start Java Web Start
> Firefox Web Browser
> Mail Mail - Thunderbird GAIM
> Instant Messenger
> Video Conferencing Video Conferencing - Ekiga Java
> Web Start
> Web Page Editor Web Page Editor - Nvu Nvu
> Web Page Editor
> Web Browser Web Browser - Firefox
> Thunderbird Mail
>
> (*Not sure this is what we'd call Evolution in this case, but we
> probably wouldn't want two entries containing "Mail" with nothing else
> to differentiate them either.)
>
> Comments?
>
> Cheeri,
> Calum.
>
> --CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer Sun Microsystems Ireland
> mailto:calum.benson at sun.com Java Desktop System Team
> http://blogs.sun.com/calum +353 1 819 9771
>
> Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems
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