Re: [PATCH]: Automatic hierarchical bookmark menu

[Peter Harvey <pah06 uow edu au>]

On Fri, 2004-05-14 at 23:46, Bosshard Raphael, bosshrap wrote:
> Hello there!

Hi Raphael,

> I've seen the screenshots of your automagic hierachical bookmark menu.
> 
> I like the idea but there are some usability-things to consider:
> 
> Inconsistent menu structure: as you mentioned the priority of the topics defines the place in the menu-level. But if the heuristic weight of the topics changes, the hierachy changes also.
> 
> I'm no usability expert (not yet! :)) but it is widly accepted that users get irritated when the menu structure changes. So my first suggestion; choose a (more or less) change-resistant algorithm, so the menu-structure changes not too often.

Your point is valid (though my experience so far is that the heuristic
is reasonably stable).

Eventually I would like to let the user set the priority of topics and
no longer rely on the heuristic. I am not exactly sure how to do it
nicely (maybe a drag-and-drop scheme for reordering topics in the
bookmark editor?). If the user fixes the priority of topics I don't
expect the menu will suffer significant changes.

However, I should point out that a changing menu structure is inevitable
in a scheme like this. The menu hierarchy is built to accommodate large
collections of bookmarks, without subdividing too much. Naturally, as
the size of the bookmark collection grows the menu will have to change
(at the least, more submenus will be created to accommodate more
bookmarks). In some instances something which was once a submenu will
become a 'peer' menu. It is both a blessing and a curse. :)

> The second "problem" arises with the "Most Visited" separation of entries. This also changes the layout of the menu and may lead to irritation. (Microsoft had to make this experience with it's dynamic menues).

The only answers I can give to this are:
     1. We don't hide the other bookmarks like Microsoft did with menu
        entries (which is annoying).
     2. The "Most Visited" topic should be reasonably stable (presumably
        they're visited for a reason). I will look into the code for the
        "Most Visited" topic to check that it is in fact stable, because
        it would be irritating if it's not.

Assuming that "Most Visited" itself is fairly stable (will check that),
the only thing we lose is the consistent alphabetic ordering of
bookmarks. I think the divider shows a clear separation though, so we
should be OK there.

> On the other hand I like the sepparation per topic, as shown in university.png.
> 
> Cool thing, good work!

Thanks. Still working on it though (cleaning up code, reducing use of
GLists, and modifying the "Add Bookmark" window to intelligently present
topics to the user). I may still need to improve the heuristic
determining when to make submenus vs. subdivisions.

Thanks for the comments.

> Raphael

-- 
Peter Harvey <pah06 uow edu au>
SITACS, University of Wollongong