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

[Jacob Beauregard <deadowlsurvivor gmail com>]

As for the comment about things that change automatically: are users 
also surprised with "Most Visited" in Firefox or, in a Windows-style 
start menu for instance, if it were labeled "Most Used Applications"

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> Today's Topics:
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>    1. Re: A New Start Menu Design, which resemble windows
>       (Matthew Nuzum)
>    2. Re: A New Start Menu Design, which resemble windows (Alex Railean)
>    3. Re: A New Start Menu Design, which resemble windows (Long Gao)
>    4. Re: A New Start Menu Design, which resemble windows (Long Gao)
>    5. Re: A New Start Menu Design, which resemble windows
>       (Matthew Nuzum)
>    6. Re: A New Start Menu Design, which resemble windows
>       (Vadim Peretokin)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 08:58:22 -0500
> From: "Matthew Nuzum" <newz bearfruit org>
> Subject: Re: [Usability] A New Start Menu Design, which resemble
> 	windows
> To: "Alex Railean" <ralienpp gmail com>
> Cc: Usability Mailing List <usability gnome org>
> Message-ID:
> 	<f3c0b4080810230658u5d86f229oa352846be087e141 mail gmail com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> 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.
>
>