[Usability] HIG has severe "MS Windows" flaws.

[Denís Fernández Cabrera <denis glug es>]

Hello,

I've recently read an article in AskTodd, and I noticed several important
elements in GUI design that I have found missing (or wrongly implemented)
in lots of GNOME applications. I have, however, not really read all the
GNOME HIG, so this info may already be there. But it's really worth a
chance, anyway:

http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html

It's really crucial, and HIG developers, and in general all GUI
developers, should read it.

For example: Why GNOME menus (and Windows') are exhasperant? Because they
are hard to "follow". When you choose one option, you must go straight
right to the next level, or else you close the submenu. Winwows "fixed"
this by installing a open/close delay in the submenues, which results in a
delay in the user time. But the correct solution is to code menu
triggering as a broadening cone, instead as a rectangular region, so that
the user can drift off from the parent entry on his way to the new
submenu.

Or, what is the greatest flaw in GNOME pannel? Or on maximized mode of
applications such as Inkscape? The fact that pannel launchers, and
Inkscape's maximized menues, end a pixel or two before the edge of the
screen. This means that the user cannot just throw the mouse down (or up,
or left), but has to slow in order to hit the appropiate button, and not
that irrelevant, one pixel barrier.

Honestly, GNOME is doing a good work in lots of aspects, but others need
polishing, and this article seems (to me, but I'm pretty ignorant in GUI
design, just a stroller-by), a real good load of hints.

Saúde, e Software Libre.

Denís.

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