Re: Panel UI - startmenu productivity thoughts

[Liam Quin <liam holoweb net>]

On Fri, Aug 31, 2001 at 11:27:00PM -0700, Adam Elman wrote:
> I definitely think it's important not to _move_ menu items to be 
> closer to the mouse pointer around as Liam suggested: it's not just 
> bad for accessibility, it's bad for usability in general.

I am sorry, I think I was unclear.
I do *not* mean to suggest reordering menu items.

I'll draw an ASCII picture, perhaps it will help.

The user has just selected Objects -> Socks, and the last choice
in this menu, yesterday, was Argyle.  The mouse pointer is at the X,
or near it, so to choose Aryle, the user has to move the pointer to
the right a little and click, or maybe can just press Enter.


+----------+
| Programs | +---------+ 
| Friends  | | Cats    | +---------+
| Places   | | Dogs    | | black   |
|[Objects ]| |[Socks  ]|X|[Argyle] |
| Colours  | | Pylons  | | blue    |
| Tastes   | | Mice    | | grey    |
| Smells   | | Ants    | | none    |
+----------+ | Planets | +---------+
             | Kids    |
             +---------+

The menus behave in the same way as usual, except for the positioning
of the window containing the menu items when the cascaded menu is shown.
a smallrightwards motion of the pointer will thus choose the same item as
last time.

I don't have strong feelings, but I think I must have been unclear, as I
am not suggesting moving individual mouse items.  Currently, the above
menus are positioned as follows (except when they hit the bottom of
the screen or don't fit) when you select Objecs->Socks, and the only
reason that it's tedious to select Argyle a second time is that the
pointer is somewhere near the X, and you have to move down to choose
anything at all.

+----------+
| Programs |
| Friends  |
| Places   |
|[Objects ]| +---------+ 
| Colours  | | Cats    |
| Tastes   | | Dogs    |
| Smells   | |[Socks  ]|X+---------+
+----------+ | Pylons  | | black   |
             | Mice    | | grey    |
             | Ants    | | blue    |
             | Planets | |[Argyle] |
             | Kids    | | none    |
             +---------+ +---------+

I hope this is clearer.  I don't know what effect ths sort of behaviour
actually has on usability.  I know that I have liked it in the past,
along with systems that bring up non-dangerous dialogue boxes so the
OK button is under the mouse pointer.

But if research has shown it to cause problems, I can also easily
accept that.

Best,

Lee

-- 
Liam Quin - Barefoot in Toronto - liam holoweb net - http://www.holoweb.net/
Ankh: irc.sorcery.net www.valinor.sorcery.net irc.gnome.org www.advogato.org
Author, Open Source XML Database Toolkit, Wiley August 2000
Co-author: The XML Specification Guide, Wiley 1999; Mastering XML, Sybex 2001