On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 7:06 PM, Kein Godby <
godbyk@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hello, Shane.
>
> On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 12:15 PM, Shane Fagan
> <
shanepatrickfagan@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> We can do it and also learn from microsoft's mistake. Im not saying it
>> wouldnt be a challenge to make it work but I think we should be
>> looking to do things like this to make the interface more intelligent.
>> Menus haven't changed for a long time we should change that.
>
> I'm all for making user interfaces more intelligent. However, we
> shouldn't change pull-down menus merely for the sake of changing
> pull-down menus.
>
> What are the problems with the existing pull-down menu design? What
> are some potential solutions to those problems? How can we test those
> solutions to see if they are improvements over the original design?
>
> Here's an example:
>
> Problem: Users must wade through menu items that they rarely use to
> get to the menu items they use more frequently (such as Save and
> Print).
>
> Proposed solution: Rearrange the menu items so that the
> most-frequently used menu items at the top of the menu. Further, we
> could hide rarely used menu items and reveal them if the user requests
> it or dwells on the menu for some period of time.
>
> Testing the design: Microsoft implemented this design in Office 2000
> to much fanfare. The problem with the design is that the order of the
> menu items changed from day to day, so the desired menu item wasn't
> where it was before, and was therefore *more difficult* to find.
> Further, the hidden menu items made it much more difficult for people
> to discover the (less-frequently used) features they were seeking and
> greatly reduced the discoverability of those features.
>
> At this point, you could iterate the design to address the problems
> found by testing or, if the problems were inherent in the design, go
> back to the drawing board and come up with a new design.
>
> But you should always start with a clear problem statement—otherwise
> you have no way of knowing whether your 'solution' is an improvement.
>
> --Kevin
>
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