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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: amaroK usability report
From:       Luciano Montanaro <luciano.montanaro () consulenti ! fastweb ! it>
Date:       2006-05-03 8:38:00
Message-ID: 200605031038.01101.luciano.montanaro () consulenti ! fastweb ! it
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On Tuesday 02 May 2006 21:30, Chi Shang Cheng wrote:

> > 3.40, 3.41 - There are plenty of other actions (for example, 'Stop
> > Playing After Track') which are only accessible through context menus.
> > The main menu would probably become quite bloated if there were
> > included into it. What is the rationale behind "Actions that are in
> > the context-menu, should always be accessible from the main menu"?
> > (genuinely curious, i've heard this before)
>
> My teacher once told me this, I don't recall what the rationale was...
> But I think it has to do that many people actually browse through the
> menus, rather than right-clicking. I've seen this behaviour a lot with
> novice users.
>

I'm not really a usability expert, but I have thought up a couple of reasons 
on why the main menu should have all the actions.

One is "discoverability": a user might browse the menus from time to time to 
find out what actions are available. If the main menu has all the actions 
listed, there is a central place where the user can look. The toolbar and 
context menus are just alternative ways to access common actions.

The other one (thinking again, this may be actually the same as above) is 
that there are many users that do not use context menus.

I'm actually confused on how to "unclutter" menus while still offering 
discoverability...

Luciano
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