Re: [Usability] A New Start Menu Design, which resemble windows

[Alex Railean <ralienpp gmail com>]

> I thought that a good start menu could be judged by such criterion as below:
>  
> 1. how many clicks your mouse need to perform before you can find a right item to act on.
> 2. how long a path your mouse have to move before you can find a right item to act on.
I agree with these principles, but if you apply them to this case, I
fail to see how they have a positive impact.

A typical Gnome menu has three items:
- applications
- places
- system


In Windows the "cost" to get to these items is +1 click (you press
"Start" before you get to see these items in order to continue
navigating the menu). The same applies to your widget.



One of the benefits of the widget is that you can add some programs to
the top level of the menu (in Windows it is called "pin to Start
menu"). In contrast, the typical Gnome menu does not offer this
feature and you're forced to navigate [as deep as you have to] in
order to find the program.

This is addressed by Gnome's "add to panel". You can see it in your
own screenshot: the terminal, firefox and a mail client are pinned to
the panel - you can start the program with a single click, no need to
open another menu for that.


As it was mentioned earlier by someone, there is a lot of horizontal
space today, so it is quite difficult to imagine a case in which a
user's needs will not be satisfied by Gnome's "add to panel".

So far my arguments show that the traditional Gnome menu is good as it
is.


In your previous messages you mentioned the Suse menu; I liked it too,
until I stumbled upon the same problem - the "All applications" is
another window which shows up and disrupts my navigation. Upon
starting a program, the window is closed, therefore I must go all the
way again if I want to start another program.

If you can make your menu like the Suse one, but without this problem,
there will be an improvement.


Here is what I can say about the current menu that you proposed:
- I think there is no need to write the name of the currently logged
  on user on the top bar.
  * look how much space it takes
  * the "Start" menu gives me no hint about the fact that I will be
    able to find the currently logged on user name there
  * I know Windows does it too, but this doesn't mean it is good
  * a compromise is to have the name under the "Log off" button, ex:
  "Log off Alex"
- I would add an edit box, which will be the focused element when the
  menu is open
  * I can type a command there, upon pressing Enter the command is
   executed
   ** or [if I set so in my preferences], a terminal window is open,
      the command is executed and the terminal stays open
  * As I type the text, it also acts as a filter - the list of
    "pinned" applications becomes the result of the filtering and is
    updated as I type.

    Note that there is nothing wrong with clearing the "pinned
    applications" list; if I needed any of those programs, I wouldn't
    be typing anything in that edit box in the first place.
- I would add the possibility to run multiple programs without having
  to collapse the menu. Imagine that the user got here:
  Start\Applications\Internet     there are several programs there, I
  need to run two of them [Pidgin and Transmission]

  What happens today: I click Pidgin, it starts, the menu collapses; I
  have to get there again in order to start Transmission.

  What should happen: Shift+Click = starts the program, keeps the
  menu open  (this is how Windows works)

- I would also make "Recent documents" expandable; because from what I
  see now, it will open another window (same problem as with the Suse
  menu)

  * If the user chooses not to "pin" any programs to the start menu, I
    would fill that with items from the list of recent documents [not
    programs]

    The reason I chose documents and not programs is because clicking
    a document will, of course, run the program that handles that type
    of file. If I ran the program instead, I'd then have to go to
    File\Open and point to the file I need - a lot of extra clicks and
    typing.

    Ideally, this would be replaced with a "global bookmarks"
    mechanism which I described in the first email posted to this
    list. "Pin to start menu" is a redundant feature, because "add to
    panel" is way better (more space, and the cost to run a program is
    always 1 click).

    At the same time, the panel is not a good place for the "global
    bookmarks" or "recent documents" - because I want to see the name
    of the document besides its icon (which would take a lot of space
    on the panel).




Alex