Re: [Usability] Thoughts on Simplification of Default Window Controls

[Dan Zlotnikov <dzlotnik artsmail uwaterloo ca>]

Quoting Steven Garrity <stevelist silverorange com>:

Off the bat, my bias: I prefer using the keyboard, especially the keyboard 
shortcuts when they are available. My personal preference is to keep the menu, 
but to augment it with shortcuts (which are currently not listed in a lot of 
window managers). 

> 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.

*snipped examples*

I notice that all of your examples are for direct manipulation using the mouse.

First, direct manipulation is possible through the keyboard as well. The HIG, 
to the best of my understanding, recommends that an action be performed 
directly on the object that is your focus, rather than on a program menu or 
some other object that is not directly related to your task. The mouse cursor 
is merely the most direct and obvious example of such. I would argue that 
hitting "Ctrl-C" is still acting directly on the selected object, much more so 
than selecting "copy" in a menu.

One of the reasons for not going all-out and eliminating keyboard shortcuts is 
the time it takes to switch between modes of input. Going from the keyboard to 
the mouse and back takes a long time. If I remember the numbers correctly, 
Raskin, in his book "The Humane Interface" gives average times for a keystroke 
to be 0.2 sec and 0.35 sec for clicking on an object with a mouse. This is not 
a problem. The problem is the time it takes for an average person to move a 
hand from the keyboard to the mouse and then back -- 1.7 sec in each direction. 
That's a significant delay when we're talking about a common operation, like 
closing a window.

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

Second, I don't believe the contents of this menu were ever standardized. I 
know that there are quite a few options other than the ones you've listed in 
the equivalent menu in IceWM, some of which don't have corresponding buttons or 
hidden buttons (a la double-clicking on the window name bar).  

> 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.

The problem that I have with this menu is the invisibility of it when one is 
using keyboard shortcuts. There is nothing in Windows (from which, I agree, it 
was most likely taken), nor IceWM, to hint at the key shortcut that would 
access this menu. I've encountered this problem in other programs, though 
mostly under Windows.

An additional problem is the frequent lack of indication that a meta-function 
mode has been accessed. By this I am referring to the highlighting of 
the "File" menu when a user hits "Alt" without an additional key.

Again, an example from Windows (sorry, I'm on a Windows box right now): 
Hit "Alt-space" to access the menu in question. Now hit "escape" once, to close 
the menu. Note that your selection is still on the menu, but there is no 
indication of the fact. Under WinXP, changing the window bar colour to be 
different from the menu highlight colour had no effect whatsoever.

> 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.

As for the need to simplify, I agree. The menu is infrequently accessed, and 
most of these functions also have key shortcuts to access them directly. It is 
also important to note that these functions are common to *all* windows on a 
given system.

I briefly considered the possibility of shifting this menu to whichever window 
manager the user is running, but that would mean violating the direct 
manipulation suggestion in the HIG -- clicking on "minimize window" in some 
arbitrary location is a lot less logical than selecting the same option on the 
window itself.


Just thinking out loud...

Dan

"Early to bed and early to rise makes a man stupid and blind in the eyes."
--Mazer Rakham, from Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game"


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