Re: GNOME Menu (was: Re: [Usability]Re: UI Review Suggestions - Panel)

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

On Tue, Nov 19, 2002 at 05:26:18PM +0000, Eugene O'Connor wrote:
> 
> Is there a problem with the name GNOME Menu?

It doesn't mean anything. Red Hat Linux 8.0 doesn't say GNOME anywhere
outside of About dialogs really, and IMHO that is appropriate from a
UI standpoint. It doesn't say Red Hat all over the place either. It
says what things are. The title of the terminal is "Terminal" not
"GNOME Terminal" or "Red Hat Terminal" (and this is what the HIG
recommends for titles and menu items).  GNOME has consistently removed
"GNOME" from most of the UI in favor of more informative labels.

"Main Menu", "Menu Button", "Applications Menu" would all tell you
something more useful and less acronym-and-computery than "GNOME
Menu", just as "CD Player" is a better title than "GNOME-CD"

> This menu is unique to GNOME (afaik), it's represented by the GNOME
> icon

It's not represented by the GNOME icon in Red Hat Linux, and won't be
with upstream GNOME if you change icon theme.

Also, the menu contains many non-GNOME features and applications.

We use an icon of a little red hat, which at least is more directly
connected to the name of the software the user just purchased, and
spans all the apps that were included; but honestly I'd prefer
something that wasn't a red hat if I could think of something decent.

> ... GNOME Menu seems
> the best to me. I also think this name is useful from a branding point
> of view.

http://www.asktog.com/columns/048GoodGrips.html

Branding flows naturally from a nice, distinctive product. Then your
explicit branding just needs to be a little label saying who made it.

Havoc