Re: a nice touch from kde's kicker

[Josh Steiner <joschi eds org>]

(i've cc:'d the usability list since that is probably where i should have
sent this in the first place)

My opinion is a little bit different.  I find this style of separation a
little easier on my eyes.  For me it is a bit disruptive to skim a menu
with icons and text mixed in the same visual space.  When I set out to
find a menu item i usually am holding the word in my mind and the icons
often distract my eye from that.  Conversely, for some apps like Evolution
and Gnome-term i know the icons so well that i tend to look for the icon
and the words distract my eye.  

In the end, this sort of decision is probably best discussed with some
user testing which is why i wanted to start up a conversation about it.

For the record, as far as I can see the XP start menu does not do this:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/winxp/images/img009.jpg

This really isn't a make or break detail so I imagine it will fall to the
way side while the excellent 2.0 is being thumped on.

-Josh

On 14 Feb 2002, iain wrote:

> On Wed, 2002-02-13 at 21:11, Josh Steiner wrote:
> > http://www.kde.org/screenshots/large/kde3-snapshot1.jpg
> > 
> > I just wanted to throw this little piece of food for though out there, I
> > really like the way that in this screenshot kicker puts the program icons
> > on a separate background color than the text, this seems to make the menu
> > more readable to my eye.  What do people think of this from a useability
> > standpoint?
> 
> >From what I remember, this was nicked from Office XP, maybe also winXP
> and has been slated as being terrible usibility wise as it seperates the
> icons and the text by drawing your attention to the icon.
> 
> iain


_____________________
Josh / Yoshi / Joschi