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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: Usability and open source
From:       Tyler Regas <tyler () regas ! net>
Date:       2000-01-31 16:58:13
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On Mon, 31 Jan 2000, Tomas Furmonavicius wrote:
> Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. I'm not against toolbar icons. Toolbars
> with these small and sometimes awkward icons is currently the best
> (probably) way to access common functions with the mouse quickly. It's
> a users problem to keep the count of toolbars ant tool buttons at
> reasonable level. It's not true, that toolbars are for newbies -
> toolbars are for experienced users, who know which operations needs
> more mouse input, which more keyboard input and can setup UI
> accordingly.

That's fine. I did misunderstand. The following is more clear :) I also did
not mean to imply that toolbars were for newbies.

> I don't understand icons in popup menus. I think in that they should
> help to associate menu entries and toolbar buttons more easily, but in
> fact I better wait for tooltip showing the "name" of the tool button,
> and then I can find menu item with the same "name" more easily (if I
> really need it). But maybe it's just me :-). Anyway, when I wrote my
> own KDE 2.x style plugin, I intentionally suppressed output of these
> icons in popup menus and found such UI easier on eyes and mind ;-)

Apple determined while making updates to the MacOS over the years that
people will memorize positions in the first stage menu for common
operations as opposed to actually scanning for words. Clear, colorful
icons were also determined to make said memorization easier and quicker.

I'm not saying that Apple is the end-all-be-all UI God here, but they made
many, many determinations through solid research that will stand true as
long as we use flat displays. We need to take advantage of that knowledge.

<<NOTE: It's funny that after all these years of MS copying the MAC UI that
they would visit that new "dynamic" menuing system on us where it actually
moves menu items based on how often you use them. My God! In the Favorites
menu in IE5 they actually have an item at the bottom of the default menu
that says:

"Where have all my Favorites gone!"

Absolute madness and rampant anarchy gone unsupressed for years. They must
have Monkeys in UI design. END NOTE>>



> Tomas
-- 
Tyler C Regas
Freelance Author
Freelance Other
ICQ#: 37060555
Mail: tyler@regas.net
HTTP: www.regas.net
=====================
Fascism can play havoc
with your complexion.
Just look at Stalin!

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