Re: [GnomeMeeting-devel-list] 0.98

[Christian Rose <menthos menthos com>]

tis 2003-02-18 klockan 11.23 skrev Damien Sandras:
> Do you mean a classical menu like the "File / Edit / View" menu?
> 
> Interesting idea, I have to think about it even though I think it is
> pretty intuitive that there is a right-click menu there (moreover the
> manual will document it).

You would be surprised at the amount of people that never use context
menus, either because they don't know about them or that they forget
about them. And let's not even mention the amount of people that read
manuals. In general, they're very few, and if reading the manual is
necessary to do basic tasks, then there usually is an interface problem.
Context menus have zero visibility, which is a big problem in UI design
in general. You may not know that they are there, you may not know which
ones are there or where, etc. Context menus are nice as an additional
means for manipulating objects, but you should never rely on them as the
only way to do something.

There's also an accessibility problem. Context menus are difficult to
access using the keyboard, so if you require the use of drag and drop or
context menus, you basically require the use of a mouse. We've tried to
go a long way in other places in GNOME so that people aren't forced to
use a mouse (and get problems with CTS etc as a result); it would be bad
if GnomeMeeting went the other way and more and more required the use of
a mouse.


Christian