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

["Matthew Nuzum" <newz bearfruit org>]

On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 2:34 AM, Alex Railean <ralienpp gmail com> wrote:
> 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.

Three points that are unrelated to each other:

One is that sharing some similarities with XP's menu makes it easier
for people to switch to GNOME.

Also, I'm sometimes jealous of systems where frequently accessed items
automatically appear in a more accessible place. However in the very
limited user testing I've done in completely unrelated software shows
that people are often surprised when things change automatically. I'd
be curious to see if anyone has done any more relevant user testing
and found if this is true with the application launcher. If users find
it convenient and not confusing it might be nice to have an area on
the panel that automatically shows frequently accessed applications
and locations. (after thinking it through a min, my testing is not
relevant because the buttons actually moved, where this launcher
suggestion leaves things in their current location and makes an
additional easier to click version available as well)

Lastly, an issue with our three panel system is that there is an item
that just don't seem to fit precisely - "Help and support." I'm not
sure why its in system yet I have a hard time proposing a better place
for it.

-- 
Matthew Nuzum
newz2000 on freenode