On 6 Oct 2006, at 23:32, Christian Heilmann wrote:
And it is an old issue. In Feb 1999 Bruce Tognazzini mentions a cone-
shaped window for the mouse path developed for Apple in his answer to
Question 6 (sorry, no purple numbers).
http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html
Are people really re-discovering this?
Well, it happens when you try to do the same things that have been
done before on other platforms.
Ah, sorry. I should have quoted Tog in full. The issue wasn't
restricted to Apple's OS:
Question 6
What is the bottleneck in hierarchical menus and what technique
used on the Macintosh, but not on Windows, makes that bottleneck
less of a problem? Can you think of other techniques that could be
applied?
The bottleneck is the passage between the first-level menu and the
second-level menu. Using Windows, users have to slide across just
right, least they slip down to the next menu at the last moment.
When I specified the Mac hierarchical menu algorthm, I called for a
V-shaped buffer zone, so that users could make an increasingly-
greater error as they neared the hierarchical without fear of
jumping to an unwanted menu. As long as they are moving a few
pixels over for every one down, on average, the menu stays open.
Apple hierarchicals are still far less efficient than single level
menus, but at least they are less challenging than the average
video game.
The Windows folks instead leave the hierarchical open for around a
half-second before jumping down. Thus, as in so many of the other
areas of their OS, they mimic the Mac without getting it right.
They have decoupled cause and effect by 1/2 second, a long, long
time in human-computer interaction. If you happen to get to the
hierarchical within that half-second, the Windows behavior is
indistinguishable from the Mac. If you don't, the behavior is just
weird and few users can figure the rule out.
Cheers,
Graham.
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