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.