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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: Popup Menu Behaviour
From:       Dave Leigh <dave.leigh () cratchit ! org>
Date:       2001-10-14 4:46:14
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On Saturday 13 October 2001 06:20, David Golden wrote:

> Yes.  I have introspected upon  my own usage patterns, asked people around
> me about it, and came to the conclusion  that _one_ of the many reasons I
> find the GIMP jarring is because of the way the menus work (having grown up
> on packages like DPaint, there's a whole host of other reasons I find the
> GIMP UI annoying...)  Even subconsciously, perhaps - one of the first
> things people I've watched seem to do after using a popup is move the
> pointer back to where it  was, even momentarily, as if they're trying to
> pick up their train of thought again.   Always remember that not everyone
> is as smart as you are. Thinking of it in computing terms, you're making
> the user's brain do a push/pop to it's short-term memory stack, which is
> more taxing.

If so, it's an incredibly minor reason... barely a factor. Here's why:

The major problem is that the GIMP relies too heavily on popups in the first 
place. Since none of the important functions of the GIMP are visible until 
the RMB is clicked, then none of them are obvious to the user. Bad. 

Add to that the fact that although most of the popup menu options refer to 
the image in the current window, not all do. File Open in the Image window, 
for instance, opens a new window rather than opening the new image in the 
current window, as you'd expect from the rest of the unconventional design.  
They wrote new GUI rules, then proceeded to break them. Bad, bad.

And why is the help split between the Help menu on the bloody Toolbox and the 
Xtns Web Browser menu? (And I'm SO impressed by the memory saved by naming 
the menu "Xtns" instead of "Extensions".) Even the help lies... the page for 
the Toolbox states that it's "most central to the use of the GIMP," when in 
reality it's the RMB popup menu on the Image window. (Why? Because the GIMP 
is a powerful image manipulator, but a terrible drawing tool.)  Docs don't 
match reality? Bad, bad, bad!

In short, the GIMP so horribly abuses the user that it's useless to bring 
forth any specific feature as the reason people think it sucks. The fact is, 
that in whole or part, from a UI perspective the damned thing just sucks.

Besides, my experience using it (and similar tools) seems to be very 
different from yours. Take something that requires precise positioning: the 
Color Picker, for instance. I don't positioning the mouse on the color I want 
FIRST, then click the RMB. I select the tool first, either by the RMB or by 
on the Toolbox, THEN position on the proper pixel. (You have to do it this 
way if you're using the Toolbox, so it's no hardship either way.) Those 
selections that are not on the Toolbox generally deal with either selection 
(which requires further mouse motion anyway) or deal with the image as a 
whole (layers, transformations, etc.)  So through personal experience I 
disagree with the premise that moving the mouse is an issue with an image 
manipulator like GIMP.

I take it on your word that this might be a problem with something like a 
full-blown CAD package, with which I have very limited experience. But from 
what experience I have had, I'd suspect that the moving menu would be useful. 
I've found myself having placed a drawing object on the canvas, then wishing 
I could easily select another shape that I would place from the current 
position. In THOSE cases, it would be nice to be able to do that rather than 
move to a separate toolbox, then re-position, then draw.  

However, I've never peraonally had a situation where it inconvenienced me 
greatly to move the mouse to change properties of an object, simply because 
changing the properties typically pulls up not just the pop-up, but also a 
resulting dialog box. Your brain is context-switching big-time, and it can't 
be avoided. Besides, in this situation your mouse pointer is liable to move 
accidentally anyway as you remove your hand to type. IF this is an issue, 
then as loathe as I am to moving the pointer under program control, in these 
situations it's better to simply have the program remember the original 
position of the mouse and re-position it after the dialog is dismissed. 
(Preferably by smoothly moving the mouse rather than just jumping it to the 
old position.)

Having said all of this, I'll simply sum up by saying that I still believe 
the moving menu to be a very specialized control that would be useful under 
unusual circumstances, and its use should be optional within the programs 
that need it. But if it were provided as a global option, I wouldn't 
complain; I'd just ignore it.

-- 
dave.leigh@cratchit.org
http://www.cratchit.org

"Little prigs and three-quarter madmen may have the conceit that the laws of 
nature are constantly broken for their sakes."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

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