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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: [OT]Cultural differences Re: [OT] Any plans to keep
From:       William Leese <william () leese ! nl>
Date:       2003-11-02 20:17:46
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Tim Jansen wrote:

>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.
>
This only stands true for the 'extended titlebar', which now contains 
various widgets for navigation. I liked this too. A problem that quickly 
came to mind (and became apparent) was consistency: explorer is the only 
application that uses them. It looks like a good idea for some 
applications, only then there is no longer room for a menubar. Remove 
the menubar by adding a mac-like menubar at the top of the screen then 
we might have a winner.

Regards,

William Leese

 
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