Re: Help menu: Findings and thoughts

["James M. Cape" <jcape jcinteractive com>]

Ben FrantzDale wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Gregory Merchan <merchan@baton.phys.lsu.edu>
> To: <gnome-gui-list@gnome.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2000 6:59 AM
> Subject: Help menu: Findings and thoughts
> 
> > After much searching with Google and through paper books, I have been
> unable to
> > find any rationale for the justification of the help menu. I have not yet
> done a
> > search through the bibliographic references provided in the books and
> articles
> > that I've seen; it will probably be a while before I can do that.
> >
> > As noted by Alan Shutko and sungod, a good reason to right justify the
> help
> > menu on the Mac menu bar is that it is near one of the five magic points
> (which are
> > under the cursor and the four corners). These are special points because
> of
> > Fitts' Law. Since most X window mangers create a bar above windows, and
> often the
> > close button is near the top right corner, Fitts' law would demand that a
> right
> > justified menu item (for left to right languages) be considered at a
> > disadvantage. Overshooting the item and hitting close would be most
> unfortunate. However, if
> > GNOME ever emulates the universal menubar of the Mac, then placing an
> important
> > item in the top right corner of the screen (assuming no connected desktop
> area
> > beyond it) would be advantageous. The sensitive area of the menu bar would
> have
> > to be increased to span the complete height as well.
> 
> Fitts' law does little good when you have menus in a window rather than on
> the top of the screen. (You don't get the advantage of being able to slam
> your mouse to the top right in a window.) Also, help menus arn't used very
> often so if it takes more than a fraction of a second for the user to figure
> out why the help menu is hiding in the other corner then all advantages of
> Fitts' law are gone.
> 
> --Ben

In addition, as most WMs and a lot of themes place window controls up in
that corner, including the close button, so one must  be more careful
when attacking a help menu placed in that location. From my own
experiencee I can say that I'm far more used to clicking a window
manipulation button than the help menu, and overshoot the help menu by
about a dozen pixels (nicely centering my mouse on a window manipulation
button) when I throw the cursor up there.

    Jim Cape
    http://www.jcinteractive.com

    "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them
     pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened."
        -- Winston Churchill