SV: Gimp-style menus

["Blad, John Erling" <john erling blad aftenposten no>]

>Just like to comment on the position of menu groups:
>the methods that affect the object are better placed on the top (near the
>mouse pointer), then the less frequent ones.

>My argument is based on the assumption that "object methods" are more
>frequently accessed than global actions.

>Yuting

And also..

>You should be calling this the "QWERTY" menu, or the "slow" menu; none of
>the most immediate (read: relevant) actions are close to the cursor upon,
>ah, clickage. :)

>- Jeff

Items placement in the menu was in fact motivated by what the user do
most frequently. The most common use case includ "select object" - "method" pairs
of user actions, "global action" - "method" where the global action generated selections
or a global action that set the app in a modal state.

The speed menu also mimics workflow. This is important when you post a menu and
work your way down to do a specific operation.

The global actions had some select mechanisms where you picked objects
from a queue, like "Select next" and "Select previous". Perhaps I should said something
about global actions instead of just describing them as that. :)

Our most important finding back then was that a context menu approach doesn't work
very well at all because the user have to learn about it. We also find that different
pointing devices impacts whats best when it comes to speed, popup menu - toolbar - 
menubar - etc.

A rollerball is more or less useless in submenus unless you have a click-to-post
functionality in the widget set. Likewise the length of the first popup menu doesn't
impact the speed very much.

John