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Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

pcpro.co.uk

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Re: Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

#31

Post by william42 »

sp332 wrote: post #5

This is a great start, but I hope it goes so much further. I always liked the (now defunct) Ubiquity project. Here's the first video they made, it's so ambitious! http://vimeo.com/1561578 You could bring up a browser command-line and start typing the name of a command, say "map" to look something up on Google Maps. As soon as you type 'm' it would give a list of autocomplete options. The internationalized parser had…

Actually, my first thought was "This reminds me of Enso", Enso being the predecessor to Ubiquity(by the same people before they were hired by Mozilla), but integrated into the desktop as a whole rather than the browser.

Unfortunately, my main complaint with Enso and Ubiquity was that both were unfortunately rather buggy. And given Ubuntu's track record with Unity, I suspect that it will be just as buggy.

Re: Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

#33

Post by chc »

kiloaper wrote: post #25
MarkMc wrote: post #11

Two things: 1. OS X already does this in the 'Search' option of the Help menu. 2. Menus are a useful way to discover the main features of a program. That is, the user can be in 'browsing' mode, not just 'searching' mode.

I haven't seen the OSX Help menu but I've seen this feature implemented in several other program on Windows and Linux years ago. They don't seem to catch on but I'm not sure why. Maybe it's habit or the fact search seems like more effort or the need to know the exact name for something or that people prefer the 'presence' that menus give to options. Personally I think it's great, as long as there's an option to resto…

The OS X Help menu combines the two approaches. You type the command name, and it opens and highlights the appropriate menu for the result — complete with a big animated arrow next to the item you're choosing — so then you know where to find the menu item next time.

Re: Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

#34

Post by lvillani »

kijin wrote: post #28

> The HUD will be introduced with the next version of Ubuntu, 12.04 > Shuttleworth: "It will be interesting to see how users react to the changes." Please... this is an LTS release and your users aren't guinea pigs. I would hate to see another potentially promising feature get bad-mouthed all over the place due to premature release. Something like this needs months of usability testing. Couldn't they just wait until…

From the article: "although the old menu system will still be available for those who don’t want to use HUD or want to explore the available commands"

In addition, users upgrading from 10.04 LTS to 12.04 LTS are already getting Unity (which is already in itself a breaking change). I see no reason to delay the introduction of this menu system.

As a user jumping between LTS versions I welcome both the introduction of Unity and the addition of keyboard-driven, menu searches.

I see your point though: maybe a better solution would be to have it in the LTS but disabled by default?

Re: Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

#35

Post by srik »

kijin wrote: post #27
jmilloy wrote: post #14

Menus, shortcuts, and command search each have their place. One of the goals should be reducing the frequency of keyboard mouse switches. If I'm using Paint, it would be annoying to type to search for commands; it would be the only time I had to let go of the mouse. It works the other way, too, and such "keyboard-centric" applications will benefit from a fast and easy command search. And no matter what, as many comma…

An interesting thing is that Unity is also trying to be a tablet-friendly interface. Using the keyboard on a tablet is rather cumbersome. HUD looks like a partly desktop-optimized, partly tablet-optimized interface that sits awkwardly in-between. I'm curious why Canonical thinks it's a good idea to train users to rely on the keyboard to find things. (Ever tried to find a program in Dash?) Despite the rise of the "sea…

They plan to make the HUD capable of gesture and speech recognition.

Re: Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

#36

Post by WayneDB »

shantanubala wrote: post #26
kstenerud wrote: post #17

So without a browsable menu, how do I discover what features a program has? Normally that's done by browsing through the menus.

I'm hoping by final release that the HUD will include a drill-down menu (like the iPod) or something similar if the search box is blank.

Drilling down to see leaves and then drilling back up to the root to see the next branch sounds tedious...unless I can do it the same exact way that it can be done now with a mouse and a normal menu (i.e. without clicking, just hovering).

However, "hover" isn't a touch thing, so I bet that Ubuntu will make that functionality a 2nd class citizen or just cut it out altogether in favor of more a more tedious "touch oriented" (read: clicky) drill-down behavior. Which will suck (IMO).

Re: Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

#38

Post by gcb »

kijin wrote: post #28

> The HUD will be introduced with the next version of Ubuntu, 12.04 > Shuttleworth: "It will be interesting to see how users react to the changes." Please... this is an LTS release and your users aren't guinea pigs. I would hate to see another potentially promising feature get bad-mouthed all over the place due to premature release. Something like this needs months of usability testing. Couldn't they just wait until…

That's one reason I'm back to Debian for a year now.

Re: Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

#39

Post by hendrix »

Ubuntu 10.04LTS has gnome 2, it also had gnome-do which was awesome. Ubuntu 12.04 is going to have unity/blurify or whatever -- this is a gigantic change and what prompted me to switch back to windows 7 on my laptop. This is too much change too fast especially when Ubuntu is targeting people from windows that are accustomed to windows xp/7.

TL;DR Ubuntu is moving wayyyy too fast.

Re: Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

#40

Post by gcb »

gcb wrote: post #38
kijin wrote: post #28

> The HUD will be introduced with the next version of Ubuntu, 12.04 > Shuttleworth: "It will be interesting to see how users react to the changes." Please... this is an LTS release and your users aren't guinea pigs. I would hate to see another potentially promising feature get bad-mouthed all over the place due to premature release. Something like this needs months of usability testing. Couldn't they just wait until…

That's one reason I'm back to Debian for a year now.

Also on Debian sid, I'm using this for some 5 months

Just an overgrow gnome-go, with lots of settings screen missing

There are even projects appearing to close the gap. What i strongly believe it's a waste of everybody time

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