Re: [Usability] Reasoning behind default panel setup?

[Janne Kaasalainen <jpkaasal cc hut fi>]

On 26 Jan 2006, at 16:37, Kalle Vahlman wrote:
> >  We have gotten lost in the Win95 task bar style, but i believe it  
> > uses up
> > too much space for its own good.
>
> I'm not sure why the Mac OS X (http://www.apple.com/macosx/) style is
> better then?

Since there are no texts on the running program icons. This makes it  
much more feasible to locate the dock on the side of the screen or  
scale it to your taste. Also, hiding the doc in OS X is easy with  
short-cut keys which leaves you with only the top bar that is about  
the height of the text + some.

Also, OS X does not list open windows in it's dock. You get to those  
via the single icon (right click or hold down the click for a longer  
time). The Doc icon brings up all the application windows but those  
minimized. Good or bad? Not my call, but I like it.

I really, really hate the windows task bar in vertical level when you  
have many apps open and the text spreads along the whole top/bottom  
of the screen. If you tilt it to a side, it takes a wide stripe off  
you screen but lessens the hassle with many windows. Neither is  
elegant on windows, me thinks.

> (yes, I noticed the fancy plans for the bottom bar, but try that on a
> 800x600 screen and tell me it's better than single panel)

I would not dare to. :) But, even on larger screens... Well, I have  
got those screen for a reason and the reason is not to waste the  
space for panels, menus or docs or how ever you want to call them. No  
pixel more than I feel need to sacrifice for the sake of the usability.


Janne Kaasalainen
janne kaasalainen uiah fi / jpkaasal cc hut fi

"What goes up, must come down. Unless it goes up a very long way."