On 04/29/2015 08:54 PM, John Moser wrote: > > > On 04/29/2015 08:32 PM, Clint Byrum wrote: > >> >> The entire reason for them being on the left is to make the top-right
Actually, no, you know what? I'm going to set decorum aside and pull a Linus here, on everyone involved. Not you, Clynt; *everyone*. First and foremost, the biggest red flag you'll ever find in the UI design sphere is "Apple blahblahblah". This statement comes out of people who have no clue what they're talking about, so make an appeal to authority--typically the authority of the least-successful product produced by the least-successful desktop computer OS manufacturer. Folks seem to forget that Apple's OSX is the only broadly-marketed, consumer-targeted alternative to Microsoft Windows, and is completely trounced by them; while also conveniently forgetting that Android devices control *four* *times* the handheld device market of iOS (caveat: that's by browser detection; by sales, people have purchased 7 times as many Android devices as iOS devices, and manufacturers have shipped 8 times as many Android devices as iOS devices). Claiming that Apple does something a certain way should be an argument made *against* doing something--it would still be a bad argument, but it would at least make sense. Apple makes a shitload of money being iTunes, Inc. So let's set aside the pointless Apple fanboy arguments and do some history. Back in 10.04, Ubuntu tried moving the controls to the left. This met with huge resistance, largely in the form of complaining, whining, and people putting the controls back where they belong. Now, I can't recall who said what, but I can at least recall what I said, so we'll go with that. What did I say? Oh yeah. I said most people are right-handed, and that the easiest way to tilt your wrist or move your arm was out and away. The top-right of your screen is the easiest area of the screen to access--go ahead, try it. Those of us with civil rights in Elbonia will find I'm completely correct; lefties will find confusion, followed by the realization that they're using the wrong hand. A year later, in 11.04, Ubuntu released the Global Menu. Three days before 15.04, Ubuntu reversed a decision to disable the Global Menu by default, after preening themselves with talk about the new Locally Integrated Menus--i.e. pre-11.04, non-Apple menus. Again, more bitching. People hated on the Global Menu. A lot. It's sort of a big deal: loads of contention among users, news articles asking if Shuttleworth is insane or just stupid, everything from strategic trepidation to outright hostility. The Ubuntu developers actually had an explanation for this one. They said it puts the menus in a consistent location, so the user won't get lost trying to find File Edit blah blah blah Tools. Translation: Users are retards who have been beaten with Cricket bats until they've sustained sufficient brain damage to soil themselves uncontrollably, so we've put the menus somewhere we can train an Amoeba to find consistently. My take on the situation? Two simple things: First, if the window is maximized, the menu is obviously in the same place on the screen. If not, you have multiple windows, and it takes *two* *mouse* *clicks* to click a menu. With LIMs (you know, *normal* menus), you just click File on the window; with Global Menus, you have to click the window, then go back and click File at the top. These days, even standard Windows 7 is so screwed up that I'm not sure what window I've got selected; right now, on Ubuntu, the only difference between this window and the Thunderbird main window is this window has black title bar text and controls, while every other window on the screen has medium-dark gray text and controls. Back in the day, the title bar would be an entirely different color. You can be pretty sure the user will have to stop and verify he's looking at the right menus before he can click with confidence. Second, people don't work the way Canonical has suggested. A screen is meaningless. Say it with me: The screen is meaningless. People don't know where they are on the screen. They know they're working on a specific window; LIMs are part of that window, and share a consistent spatial relationship with that window. Everything in the window shares a specific spatial relationship with that window--mostly with the top and left of that window. The window may resize or move around, but most things--including the menus and controls--share a specific spatial relationship with the top and left of that window. Putting the menu in the same fixed position in the workspace--the screen--means you're moving it around. You have a component of the window which no longer has a fixed spatial relationship with the window, and must be located when used. The controls in the top-right have the slightest disadvantage of being affected by the width of the window; this is made up for by the fact that the user is typically well-aware of the window's physical dimensions, that being critical to everything he's doing with it. Disconnecting the controls or menus from the window puts them off somewhere in lala land; they may as well be dumped randomly around the screen, as long as they stay put once placed and are readily identified. Canonical has been backpedaling on Global Menus for several releases, giving configuration options, then heavily considering just turning that crap off. They have not come out and claimed anything about good UI design; they've just shuffled around uncomfortably. Now we're talking about controls being in the top left. I'll make this simple. The top of the screen is easy to hit: throw the pointer that way haphazardly. The top of a window is *not* easy to hit. Grouping the controls around the single most important universal element of a modern UI--the freaking FILE MENU--is a good way to get errant clicks coming out your ass. For those just rolling with the idioms, I'd like to point out that this literally means you're figuratively shitting errant clicks all over the place. If I'm going to use vulgar imagery, I'm at least going to inject a little cerebral commentary. An errant click just above File currently does nothing, and then you immediately click again after a tiny nudge, and probably don't realize how very often you do this (the people who whine about how computer mice suck terribly and keyboard shortcuts are critical for productivity are the people who notice). Suddenly you have to be extra-careful about where you click. On the bright side, every time you get a new mouse, you'll learn precision-clicking faster. Practice has to generate errors; deliberate practice involves constant and immediate feedback, so you're gonna have to click CLOSE when trying to click FILE repeatedly, until you learn to land that pointer right on the FILE menu. Better drill those mouse-pointing skills on every individual device you own. We're going to have these arguments repeatedly, and we're going to keep having them until people stop going "YEAH THIS WILL BE COOL, WE'RE GOING TO DO NEW STUFF AND BE DIFFERENT!" and "WAH WAH I DON'T LIKE THE NEW UI!" Maybe one day, we'll have competent UI designers set up end-user focus groups and take actual metrics of what does and doesn't work, instead of having some self-absorbed pseudo-dictator make shit up and claim it's good UI practice. End rant. -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
