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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Default kicker postion
From:       tina trillitzsch <t.trillitzsch () gmx ! de>
Date:       2004-06-05 20:56:15
Message-ID: 20040605225727.265579db () schlampe
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I have a suggestion: what do you think about changing the
default position of the taskbar and K Menu? Right now, they default to
the bottom edge of the screen, with the K Menu button in the left
corner, and K Menu moving upward when opened.

My idea is to practically reverse this to place the taskbar at the top
edge of the screen, with the K Menu button in the top right corner.

Like this: http://www.uni-koblenz.de/~trilliti/bilder/layout_small.png

There are several reasons why I think that this layout would be more
usable.

1) It is more natural to look for things at eye-level (where the upper
edge of your monitor is) than to look down for them. Apple must have
noticed this, too, since the main menu-bar in Mac OS has always been at
the top of the screen.

2) The distance between the K Menu and the window controls (menus,
close, minimize) is smaller if the taskbar is at the top, saving mouse
mileage.

3) Consistency: if the taskbar is at the top of the screen, the K Menu
drops down like all other menus that one encounters in KDE and every
other desktop environment known to me, including Windows and Mac OS.

4) The majority of users is undisputably right handed. One would assume
that it is unnatural for a right-handed person to reach across to the
lower left corner of the screen to open something used as often as the K
menu. The most natural direction the right-handed user's mouse takes is
right, not left, and the point in the bottom left corner is even the
last point that it would move to naturally (see Bruce Tognazzini's "A
Quiz Designed to Give You Fitts", answer to question 3:
http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html). That's a
clear sign for me that the K Menu button should definitely be at the top
as a default. 

I and a fried have tried this top-oriented layout for some time now and
although many may think that it will take a lot of time getting
used to, especially for newcomers from Windows (or the current default
KDE layout), it did not. It actually came quite easily to me, although I
had used Windows in the default taskbar configuration (taskbar at the
bottom, start button on the left) for many years and had configured
my KDE desktop the same for a long time, too.

This has already been a topic on this list before in 2002, see:
http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-usability&m=103214382521658&w=2 but it seems
that nobody was interested - there was no answer. I think it would be a
step towards better usability.

tina
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