unity-design team mailing list archive

[Conscious User <conscioususer@xxxxxxx>]

> 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>
> 
> That tells me that implementing a middle-click default action wouldn't
> be a good use of our time. It also suggests to me that to ease the
> transition for Windows emigrants, we should find a way for
> right-clicking on a status menu to open the menu exactly the same way as
> left-clicking does -- just like it does in a standard GTK menu bar already.

In my opinion, this is an over-extrapolated conclusion. From my
point of view, the links above show that what didn't work was,
specifically, treating the menu like the advanced mode and the
single click as the easy mode.

What we are proposing is the *opposite*: menu being the easy mode
and single-click being the advanced mode, the shortcut for those
who know it. It's very much like a keyboard shortcut: that the
user might not know about it in the beginning is not a big deal,
but there is a substantial number of users who can have a big
boost in productivity by using it. But not *all* users, that's
why it's an advanced mode.

This is just guessing, but I think the Windows implementation
failed because people are used to the right click summoning a
menu and the left click directly doing something. People, me
included, are instinctively afraid of clicking on something
they don't know what will do, and tend to prefer opening a
menu and seeing a list of named, readable actions.

Assigning left and right buttons to the same menu, like you
just suggested, and middle for shortcuts is a good solution,
in my opinion. It places the less scary mode (menus) in both
common buttons and places the shortcut for advanced users in
the less used button.