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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: Action icons in menus
From:       Celeste Lyn Paul <celeste () kde ! org>
Date:       2010-12-24 20:01:54
Message-ID: AANLkTimz2Ves1F4+1-dqKGABQM5DH4MLmn_4NfmtMS2T () mail ! gmail ! com
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This would also be a great topic for a developer to work on during a
UX sprint :)

2010/12/24 Celeste Lyn Paul <celeste@kde.org>:
> This is a very interesting concept, but not necessarily for context
> menus. Imagine this design proposal as a first step towards merging
> window menu and toolbars, not too disimilar from the Microsoft ribbon.
> One weakness with the ribbon is that it limits the amount of
> functionality by what can graphically fit in the ribbon interface.
> 
> Instead of going pure graphics, you could merge frequently used tasks
> (graphics) with extended functions and features (text menu items).
> This would preserve the amount of functionality in an application
> (Microsoft stripped out some features or moved them to different
> places in order to fit them in the ribbon). At the same time, we would
> have an updated look and feel to our windowing concept that maximizes
> common interactions.
> 
> I think something like this could also be an interesting alternative
> to what IE7 does by providing minimal toolbar buttons and menu items,
> and hiding everything else. In this design, additional functionality
> would be on a true "second layer of disclosure" rather than "hidden
> away".
> 
> Anyway, just some thoughts. I don't want to discount the design simply
> because of a few minor issues, because it is still in the conceptual
> stage. We don't want to shoot down ideas like this too early in the
> design process, otherwise we will never innovate.
> 
> Just some thoughts.
> 
> On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 2:56 PM, Miha Čančula <miha.cancula@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I have recently come across an idea on KDE Brainstorm. [1] The proposal is to \
> > change the common actions in menus (cut, copy and paste) from text lines to \
> > icons, like in application toolbars. It is currently the most popular idea there. \
> >  Someone posted a proof-of-concept example of how this can be achieved, and I \
> > used it for Dolphin's popup menu. [2] Code-wise, this change is very simle (5 \
> > lines of code at most). Qt can embed custom widgets to menu via the QWidgetAction \
> > class, and this class can contain a KToolBar. It has to be done for each \
> > application, but there's very little work involved. If the idea is accepted, a \
> > convenience method or two would be added to KMenu and/or KStandardAction, so \
> > there could be a global settings to fall back to current mode. 
> > However, it is a major change for user interaction. So I'd like to start a \
> > discussion whether such a change is desired for KDE applications or not. The pros \
> > and cons I can think of right now are: Pro:
> > 1. Biger clickable area => less chance of misclicks
> > 2. Icons, when they are intuitively identifiable with an action, can be \
> > recognised by humans faster and much easier. I think the above makes it better \
> > from a usability standpoint, but as a programmer I wouldn't know much about that. \
> >  Con:
> > 3. For actions that are not easily identifiable by an icon, this is very bad. \
> > This is the reason only some of the actions would be converted to icon display, \
> > as you can see from the mockups and screenshots. 4. It looks (a little) like the \
> > ribbon UI. 
> > I personally believe such a change is a good thing. However, there must be \
> > limits. Using it in right-mouse-button menus is one thing, using it in the File \
> > menu is another. I would very much like to know how you feel about this. 
> > Thank you,
> > Miha Čančula
> > 
> > [1]: http://forum.kde.org/brainstorm.php?mode=idea&i=89969#anchormain
> > [2]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/noughmad/sets/72157625584527238/
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Celeste Lyn Paul
> KDE Usability Project
> KDE e.V. Board of Directors
> www.kde.org
> 



-- 
Celeste Lyn Paul
KDE Usability Project
KDE e.V. Board of Directors
www.kde.org


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