Re: [Ayatana] Middle-click on indicators

[Philipp Wendler <ubuntu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

Am 15/04/10 14:15, schrieb Matthew Paul Thomas:

> Yes, as the Windows UX guidelines say: "Left single-click" should
> "Display whatever users most likely want to see", while "Right-click"
> should "Display the context menu, with the default command in bold."
> <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511448(v=MSDN.10).aspx#interaction>
> 
> But even though (a variation of) that guideline has been around since
> Windows 95, it hasn't worked out well. Many users have given up on
> left-clicking on notification area items -- probably, I think, because
> the left-click action wasn't predictable or memorable enough. Instead,
> they right-click to get the menu every time. "What? You can left-click
> on that thing and it does something different from right clicking? Dude,
> why didn't anybody tell me this? I've been doing it the hard way all
> this time!"
> <http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2009/05/01/9581563.aspx>

For me this shows that it is not worth trying to let the indicators
behave exactly like a single other UI component. This interaction
pattern is the same as for almost all icons in Windows (desktop, start
menu, files in the explorer etc., with toolbars being probably the
single big exception) and for these icons everybody knows how to use it.
But indicators look somewhat different and users expect them to do
something different, so they don't expect indicators to support the same
interaction pattern. And I think this is the same for our indicators,
the users will not expect them to behave exactly like menus, because
they look different and they are there for a different purpose. So why
bother restricting the indicators to plain menus?

However, I do not support the "users don't use it, so we don't need to
implement it" conclusion one might draw from this article. On Windows,
altough there is this guideline, there is some inconsistency between
different indicators, and some of the users might have experienced
unwanted actions to be executed on left click, so they trained
themselves to only use right click. Also they need to know about the
right-click menu, because some options are available only there. So it's
either "know both of them" or "know the right click".

If we enforce that the default action has to appear in the left-click
menu, this inconsistency is gone. Also, as Conscious User wrote, we want
to use the opposite: left click (which is still the default click mode)
will bring up the menu, and this is all you ever need to know, if you
don't want to know more. Also a left click will never execute an
unwanted action. But if you know more, and want to be faster, than there
is a shortcut for you. But the advanced UI will not disturb or confuse
the beginner user. I think this is the right way to provide user
interfaces that behave well for both beginners and experts.

Greetings, Philipp