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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: [OT]Cultural differences Re: [OT] Any plans to keep up
From:       Tim Jansen <ml () tjansen ! de>
Date:       2003-11-02 20:02:59
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On Sunday 02 November 2003 20:29, William Leese wrote:
> Microsoft hasn't introduced any compelling new features in the developer
> build released at the PDC a few weeks back. There are some dramatic UI
> changes: menu- and toolbars have been merged and are no longer located
> directly below the titlebar per se. Between the new 'combo'-menus and
> the titlebar there's somekind of information/actions banner. It's pretty
> awkward.

Actually I found the concept interesting. The problem with the toolbar/menu 
concept, as currently used in KDE and WinXP, is that commonly used actions 
like the browser's 'back' button are very small, while at the same time 
valueable space is consumed for actions that I use much less frequently. 
Longhorn makes the most commonly used actions *really* large, puts the less 
frequently used actions into the toolbar and hides the rest in the menus. 
I haven't measured the frequency of how often the 'Back' button is used, but I 
wouldn't be surprised if Fitt's Law (http://www.usabilityfirst.com/glossary/
main.cgi?function=display_term&term_id=265) would show that this increases 
usability.

> First impressions: the UI is complex and seems to conflict with the
> newly introduced UI elements that are large and colorful.

'Large' is the advantage, they are much easier to hit.

bye...
 
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