Re: [Usability] Re: Menu order.

[Patrick Costello <Patrick Costello Sun COM>]

Juha Siltala wrote:
> On Tue, 2004-08-10 at 16:01, Patrick Costello wrote:
>
>
> > - Alphabetical ordering is standard UI design practise. Users worldwide are 
> > accustomed to this approach.
>
>
> As a GNOME user, and a computer user, I must disagree. I want things in
> my GUI to not be alphabetical, but where I expect them to be. Two things
> command my expectations: familiarity and intuition. Familiarity tells me
> to find things where they have always been, and intuition tells me that
> clever designers of interfaces must have put things where they should
> be, them designers being as smart as they are.
>
> I would argue that an interface that is intuitive(1) will be more useful
> than something you learned from bad, historical examples of user
> interfaces. At least the Youth will have some hope! :)

Do you disagree that alphabetical ordering is standard UI design practise? 
Do you disagree that users worldwide are accustomed to this approach?

Or are you putting forward a personal preference that this is not the way 
things should be?

Before we reject an established, familiar framework, we must have a clear 
picture of an alternative model with sound reasons backing up that model, 
based on factual observations and wide user feedback.

You quote one possible reason for change above, i.e. that an intuitive UI 
would be more useful than a character-dependent framework. While this 
argument appears to have merit, after all who amongst us would deny the 
value of intuitive design, the difficulty lies in defining "intuitive". 
What appears intuitive to one user, might look like the results of a 
blindfolded darts match to another. What is clearly intuitive in one 
locale, could be totally counter-intuitive in another. Fair enough, a user 
who is familiar with the UI across locales will be >>familiar<< with the 
structure, but for your average single-language user, the structure could 
appear to be completely random, daunting, and requiring a major effor to 
learn and remember where everything is located.

For many people, because of educational and life-long habit, alphabetical 
ordering of menus >>is<< the most intuitive, surely.


Also, as an earlier respondent to this thread pointed out, the 
multi-lingual usage is probably a minority audience. Is there sufficient 
reason to change the UI structure for the majority audience, to accommodate 
the minority audience. Only if the majority audience will also benefit, but 
I do not think we have established that.

Anyway, as I asked earlier, what is really being proposed?

- Change the default?
- Provide a customizable menu order option?

Pat


***************************************
Patrick Costello, JDS Documentation
Phone: 		01 819 9077 [ext 19077]
***************************************