> I am users from windows, that is no shame. Jobs learned his ideas of
> GUI from Xerox.  But windows succeeded later. There must have
> something that could be learned in Windows.


Really, I don't want to flame anybody... I've used Windows for many
years... but really the only valuable thing that should be learned from
M$ and Windows is... Marketing! ... and "mind manipulation"...

>  
> Using a GtkWindow as a Start menu, I could add whatever I or you like
> on the start menu. I could add Tabs in a start menu, and many others. 
>  


I can see that we are not really on the same path... matter of opinions
perhaps... but I think that a "menu" is a "menu". Full stop. The user
expect it to work as a menu. What's the point in having tabs in there?
why should the menu GUI be cluttered in that way? Really I can't see the
point in trying to bring as much things as possibile inside this strange
"Start menu" that finally we should call "the universe" since it has all
the world in it, in few pixels... a collage of functions, icons,
documents, information about users, settings and so on... and we should
call it "simple"? it's not simple at all... the right place to arrange
things is on the Desktop! the whole Desktop! not on a single all-in-one
window that you call "Start menu", but perhaps should be called "Mess
menu".

> sometime simple is better, but that might not be true for desktop
> users. If a tool is too simple, then the difficulty might be burdened
> on the users. Users might have to do much extra work to make simple
> tools work together.


Yes... but we're not talking about tools or applications here! try to
think in practice... about Desktop Users... what is the "extra work" in
not having the "mess menu"? find a thing that is less accessible or
require "extra work" that cannot be done more clearly in gnome-panel
instead of in this "mess menu".
I don't understand why you think we should not use the whole desktop,
with it's powerful gnome-panel, to accomplish all the work that you're
planning to do in this sort of "menu" (that is not really a menu).
Why collapse all the work of the Desktop in a menu?
If you're feeling the need to have a simplified interface to Desktop
functionality, then you should re-invent a Desktop interface, not create
a "mess menu"... look at this for example: 
http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/nbr
... but I agree with Karoliina "Don't think what has been done, think
what has not been done, that
could be better".
Don't give a solution and then try to create a problem (that doesn't
exist) and that is solved by the solution you provided...
Thing about a problem a find a solution, something different, something
new, something better! Think different!

> 
> 
>  
> 2008/10/28 Daniele Levorato <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 
>         Il giorno mer, 22/10/2008 alle 20.42 +0800, Long Gao ha
>         scritto: 
>         
>         > In fact, the real reason why I implemented this start menu
>         > is to use a widget of GtkWindow to make a start menu more
>         > powerful, 
>         
>         
>         
>         
>         ... more powerful... I think it's not more powerful. It just
>         mixes different concepts that Gnome menu is able to
>         differentiate and so be more clear.
>         Remember that the gnome philosophy is "less is more" and this
>         is the case!
>         
>         Frequently used applications? ... fewer clicks to achieve a
>         certain "point" in places or applications menu? A way to
>         quickly see which user is logged? the Gnome Panel is there,
>         with it's menu and it's applets! nothing you can't do or can't
>         present clearly to the user. Never saw something more
>         versatile in Windows.
>         
>         In you very first post you said that you "always found puzzled
>         of thinking which menu to click when I want to do
>         something"... but you really can't tell if you have to go to
>         "Applications" "Places" or "System"? really? In my opinion
>         it's not true! it's really clear instead, as I could see from
>         my user testing experience. While it's not clear what a
>         "Start" button is! You find yourself very comfortable with
>         that sort of thing just because you "already know it"...
>         perhaps you "come from Windows" I think... 
>         Unluckily, many users are "affected" badly by their first
>         experience with Windows and expect every system to work like
>         that (I'm talking in general, not about you... just what I saw
>         in my user experience)... 
>         
>         
>         
>         > I wish that a well structured "menu" could provide more
>         > functionality. 
>         
>         No, in my opinion a well structured menu is the menu that have
>         only the functionality it is intended to, and not "more". For
>         example It's better to leverage the huge horizontal space to
>         have single menus, one of them is "Applications" that dials
>         only with Applications. It's clear. It's simple. It's
>         usability... 
>         
>         
>         
>         
>         >   
>         > From the point of my view, I always want to find some good
>         > ideas from Windows, which I thought was totally a mistake:).
>         > The start menu might be a difference.
>         
>         
>         
>         
>         It's good to take ideas from other Desktops, as long as they
>         don't break any copyright ;-)
>         Copying the "idea" (if we can call it so) of Windows main menu
>         is not a good idea in my opinion. I think that some people
>         wants it just because "they're used to it". I had many
>         experiences in this sense: many users want to keep an old
>         applications UI (even if it's absolutely wrong), just because
>         it is part of their knowledge, and they feel "changes" as bad
>         things, somehow like start learning again from the beginnings.
>         But take a "fresh" (uncompromised) user... it will find Gnome
>         menu very intuitive, and Windows menu something "really
>         strange".
>         
>         In my opinion we should not make Gnome be like Windows, just
>         to make users more comfortable to switch their Desktop. Leave
>         this to KDE ;-) (joking)
>         Sometimes there's the need to innovate, to follow paths that
>         the others don't follow, to reach results that the others
>         don't reach...
>         This is the path that I think gnome is following... and that
>         Apple summarize with it's "think different" moto. 
>         
>         
>         
>         
>         > _______________________________________________
>         > Usability mailing list
>         > [email protected]
>         > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
>         
>         
>         ______________________________________________________________
>         
>         
>         Ing. D a n i e l e  L e v o r a t o
>         InfoCamere S.c.p.A
>         049/8288681
>         System Engineer
>         Direzione Registro Imprese 
>         Team Middleware 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Usability mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability


________________________________________________________________________

Ing. D a n i e l e  L e v o r a t o
InfoCamere S.c.p.A
049/8288681
System Engineer
Direzione Registro Imprese 
Team Middleware
_______________________________________________
Usability mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability

Reply via email to