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Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

pcpro.co.uk

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Re: Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

#51

Post by oconnore »

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…

> Something like this needs months of usability testing.

Seeing as how 12.04 is many months away, I don't understand your disagreement.

Re: Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

#52

Post by marchdown »

soosh wrote: post #19

Random question -- does any operating system or application, having noticed you did something the hard way, say, "hey, next time, hit Ctrl-% when you want to do that?"

Both Windows and OS X have conventions in place to help with discoverability.

Windows menus items have certain letters underlined, and you can hit Alt+underlined letter to open a menu, then Alt+letter to select an item or submenu. It provides both discoverability and keyboard-based navigation.

OS X places hotkeys at the far right of every menu item which has a hotkey equivalent.

Re: Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

#53

Post by jdbernard »

rlpb wrote: post #49
gcb wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The GNOME 3 shell is in the Ubuntu archive, same as Debian. AIUI, it's one "apt-get install" away. It seems a bit overkill to switch distro just because you don't like the default.

But that's the whole reason I'm using Ubuntu in the first place: sensible defaults. There are plenty of other great distros out there and switching is easy, especially to such a close relative of Ubuntu like Debian.

Re: Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

#54

Post by silentOpen »

rlpb wrote: post #49
gcb wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The GNOME 3 shell is in the Ubuntu archive, same as Debian. AIUI, it's one "apt-get install" away. It seems a bit overkill to switch distro just because you don't like the default.

Too much user-friendly cruft in Ubuntu now. Debian keeps the good parts and doesn't make me do extra work disabling the WM and friends. XMonad >>= that was easy.

Re: Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

#55

Post by shantanubala »

WayneDB wrote: post #36
shantanubala wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 orie…

Aren't drop-down menus technically the same as "drill-down" in terms of number of clicks? As long as you can use "breadcrumbs" that allow you to quickly access the hierarchy of menu items, it shouldn't require any additional clicks to get to the option you want.

Re: Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

#56

Post by ElliotH »

crazygringo wrote: post #42

This completely violates one of the most important aspects of interface design: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance The article says: "One of the first things people do [when they get a new piece of software] is go through all the menus". Of course we do! That's how we learn what the program can do, not just how to do it. That's affordance.

That sounds inaccurate.

The example for affordance I always use is the door handle example.

The pull handle on a door 'affords' pulling. The metal pad 'affords' pushing.

(a keyboard button 'affords' pressing)

Essentially they look like they should be pulled, pushed and pressed.

Re: Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

#57

Post by [deleted] »

rlpb wrote: post #49
gcb wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The GNOME 3 shell is in the Ubuntu archive, same as Debian. AIUI, it's one "apt-get install" away. It seems a bit overkill to switch distro just because you don't like the default.

[deleted]

Re: Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

#58

Post by Lighting »

Yerk. I hate these things instead of the drop down menu because

a) often the way I discover about the other programs/things that are similar is the fact that they also appear in the same drop down menu.

b) memory. Often the name of the item is not something I recall, but I remember the shape/color of the icon, or the association with the location in the menu

c) namefail. These things (at least how it works in Ubuntu 11) suck at finding the actual program. Some programs have multiple names by which they are known and they don't show up when you type the more common one. Google Earth is a good example. Or some - just don't show up at all for some reason.

Re: Ubuntu rips up drop-down menus

#59

Post by epochwolf »

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…

Here's a screenshot http://dl.dropbox.com/u/361483/archive/help_menu_search.png
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