[Usability] Thoughts on Simplification of Default Window Controls

[Steven Garrity <stevelist silverorange com>]

I'm running the BlueCurve theme on Fedora, which I find to be 
professional, attractive, and elegant. It occurred to me that the top 
left window control (I'll call it the 'system menu' – please correct me 
if there is another term for this) offers very little functionality that 
isn't already available elsewhere.

Take a look at the menu items in the system menu:

Minimize, Maximize/Restore, and Close already have their own dedicated 
window controls (top-right).

Move can be done by dragging the window title bar and Resize can be done 
by dragging window borders. Both of these are nice examples of enabling 
direct manipulation, as recommended in the HIG 
(http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/1.0/usabilityprinciples.html#enable-direct-manipulation).

Roll-up can be done my double-clicking on the title bar.

This only leaves the multiple workplaces menu items as the only elements 
that aren't duplicates of functionality found elsewhere.

When I brought this issue up with a few friends and co-workers, I framed 
it as something that may have been copied from Windows. I was corrected 
though, as this is something that goes back well before even Windows 3.1.

I also pointed out the simpler window controls of Mac OS (the 
confounding behavior of the green “maximize” control notwithstanding). 
However, this isn't quite fair either. Mac OS does have the application 
menu in the global menu bar that runs across the screen. This has some 
similarity to the system menu in Gnome, though it does not include the 
manipulation functions (move, resize, minimize/maximize, etc).

This menu does have advantages for keyboard access and I suspect 
accessibility. It's a nice play to display the keyboard short-cuts too. 
Hiding/undiscoverable menu items are worth avoiding. That said, I'm sure 
there could be alternatives for keyboard accessibility of these 
functions. For example, right-clicking on the title bar opens up this 
system menu.

It strikes me that this redundancy may be an opportunity to simplify a 
aspect of window management that we see a lot of. However, this is just 
an open idea, intended to spawn discussion. I certainly don't have an 
implementable-suggestion here. I'm curious to hear the thoughts of 
others on these default window controls.

Thanks,
Steven Garrity