Ok, I guess all you (non-Sun) folks were a bit daunted by the thought
of reviewing the whole UI spec proposal at www.gnome.org/~calum/
nevada/ui-spec/index.htm :) But there's one particular issue that's
been causing some debate here among the team, that we'd really like
your feedback on.
Based on David's comments in the original thread:
On 9 Mar 2006, at 22:53, David-John Burrowes wrote:
>>> Menu entry Tool tip
>>> ---------- --------
>>> Firefox Web Browser Browse the world wide web
>>> Web Browser - Firefox Browse the world wide web
>>> Web Browser Firefox: Browse the world wide web
>>>
>>> Any preferences? The main concerns I'd have with putting the app
>>> name right on the menu is that (a) it might get a bit cluttered,
>>> and (b) it might look a bit ugly on those menus where some app
>>> names start with capitals (Firefox), and some with lower case
>>> letters (jEdit)
>
> Certainly, I prefer the first. :-)
the current spec includes the 'real' name of the app in its Launch
menu entry, if that's how the app refers to itself in its main
window, alert messages etc. Thus gedit is "Gedit Text Editor" and
file-roller is "File-Roller Archive Manager", but gcalctool is just
"Calculator", and gnome-terminal is just "Terminal". Main reasons
that we thought this might be a good idea are:
- Familiarises the user with an otherwise-unusual term that they'll
probably see on the screen when they run the app, or when (heaven
forbid!) something goes wrong
- Distinguishes between two apps with the same functionality (e.g.
two different text editors)
- menus full of generic names can make the whole environment feel a
little "cheap"
However, in reviewing the spec internally again today, there was some
concern that, because the menus are ordered alphabetically (and
there's not a lot we can do about that right now), users who know
they're looking for their "web browser" application (say) are now
potentially hindered because it shows up under "F". Whereas, in
other cases, their "Terminal" is still under "T", and their
Calculator still under "C". Plus many menu items gain an extra word,
which certainly doesn't help visual scan-ability (although it may not
hinder it either).
Alternative proposals were to put the application name after the
functional name ("Web Browser - Firefox"), which might look a bit
messy with all those hyphens scattered around the menu, or in the
tooltip, which could be annoying if you were specifically looking for
an application name, as there's an enforced delay before tooltips
appear.
So, the question to our OpenSolaris users is: which would /you/
prefer? As an example, here's how the proposed Accessories and
Internet menus would look in each of the three schemes (sorry,
doesn't quite fit into 76 columns):
Archive Manager Archive Manager - File-Roller
Calculator
Calculator Calculator
Character Map
Character Map Character Map
Dasher Predictive Text Entry
On-Screen Keyboard On-Screen Keyboard - GOK File-
Roller Archive Manager
PDA Synchronization PDA Synchronisation
Gnopernicus Screen Reader/Magnifier
Predictive Text Entry Predictive Text Entry - Dasher GOK
On-Screen Keyboard
Screen Reader/Magnifier Screen Reader/Magnifier - gnopernicus PDA
Synchronisation
Terminal Terminal Gedit
Text Editor
Text Editor Text Editor - Gedit Terminal
Calendar and Task Manager* Calendar/Task Manager - Evolution Ekiga
Video Conferencing
Instant Messenger Instant Messenger - GAIM
Evolution Mail and Calendar
Java Web Start Java Web Start
Firefox Web Browser
Mail Mail - Thunderbird GAIM
Instant Messenger
Video Conferencing Video Conferencing - Ekiga Java
Web Start
Web Page Editor Web Page Editor - Nvu Nvu
Web Page Editor
Web Browser Web Browser - Firefox
Thunderbird Mail
(*Not sure this is what we'd call Evolution in this case, but we
probably wouldn't want two entries containing "Mail" with nothing
else to differentiate them either.)
Comments?
Cheeri,
Calum.
--
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum.benson at sun.com Java Desktop System Team
http://blogs.sun.com/calum +353 1 819 9771
Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems
