Re: [Usability] Future of the menu top bar?

[Alexandre Silva <hav0x sapo pt>]

The layout change to me will really be just a minor annoyance as long
they don't force me to use the panel on the bottom.
As far as usability goes i discovered i am much more confortable using
the top panel for the menu (heck i just use one top panel for
everything). Even now whenever i get to use a windows box the first
thing i do is pull the bar to the top. Can't really talk about usability
tests but i feel more confortable that way.
Plus ... does gnome really want to go down the "don't confuse the
windows lusers" road? If so just throw the HIG out of the windows and
let's mimic windows vista.

   
Qui, 2006-05-11 �16:33 +0100, Alan Horkan escreveu:
> Linux Format magazine June 2006 (LXF80) reported on comments Nat
> Friedman[1] made in Paris:
> ... we developed an extension to Gnome that put a bar at the top, which
> looked a little like Macintosh.  In our usability tests that we did last
> year we discovered that the bar was a really bad idea.  It was confusing
> to Windows users who were used to having just one bar at the bottom, and
> confusing to Macintosh users who ere used to having one bar at the top and
> it behaving completely differently.  So we'd written this thing that was
> confusing to everyone, and hundreds of [usability test] videos later we
> said, "Let's not do that!"
> 
> [Text quoted as directly and accurately as possible from Linux format
> magazine.]
> 
> Neither Sun Microsystems nor Novell use the top bar.  They have not yet
> attempted to push these changes back upstream.  This is especially
> worrying since it was Ximian (now part of Novell) who proposed the topbar
> in the first place.  It seems odd to carry on with this strategy when the
> very people who proposed it are now saying it is a bad idea.
> 
> On a personal note, as someone who has been using Gnome since around 1.2
> and various version of Microsoft before that so I happen to be more
> comfortable without the topbar.  (If at some later date the GTK port to
> Mac OS allowed a truely Macintosh style menubar I'd be interested to try
> it having also used Macs in education.)  If I feel bothered enough to
> change any of the defaults (rather than file a report trying to improve
> the defaults) the first thing I usually change is to put down a custom
> wallpaper and second to that is to use have a main menu on the bottom left
> corner.
> 
> Okay so we have Novell and Sun in one corner using a more Microsoft style
> layout.  In the other corner we have Ubuntu and others [2] who (mostly)
> accept the current default layout.
> 
> Do we need to reconsider?
> 
> After we have discussed this I may bring this to the desktop-devel list
> but deliberately did not crosspost since I wanted to avoid crosstalk as it
> gets too disorganised and confusing and often ends up being counter
> productive.
> 
> Sincerely
> 
> Alan Horkan
> 
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> 
> [1] I've sent a Carbon Copy of this message to Nat as you can see from the
> headers.
> 
> [2] I don't know for sure what other distributions accept the default
> layout.  Please do tell if your preferred distribution accepts the default
> panel layout.
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