On Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 15:54, Mark
Shuttleworth
<mark@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Because of the potential issues horizontal navigation
introduces in
indicator menus, we have tried to take great care to specify
the exact
behaviour whenever horizontal nav within a menu is a
possibility. Please
do report cases that don't work, or which are not precisely
and
completely spec'd.
I'd like to know if you have a spec or guideline for how to
use horizontal menu elements.
The Sound Menu wiki didn't specify anything about
horizontal menu elements, the only reference is this mail of
yours..
What i know so far about how to design with horizontal
elements:
* use only where necessary
* try to design for easy pointer-aiming ( as few horizontal
elements as possible)
* look out for cases of mutual exclusion to help reduce the
number of simultaneously displayed items
* use for frequently accessed controls that must be close
to each other
* use for controls that have a special semantic proximity
(e.g. backward, pause/play, forward)
looking through the Indicator Menus, i found 2 places where
horizontal elements were being used so far, both in the Sound
Menu:
a) the volume bar with the Mute button (loudspeaker with no
waves), Fader, Full Volume Button (loudspeaker with three
waves).
b) playback controls
what can we deduct from this?
First of all, that we have two Mute buttons in the Sound
Menu...
Second: It *is* possible to design a comfortable menu
interaction experience with horizontal elements.