unity-design team mailing list archive

[Mario Vukelic <mario.vukelic@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry, I must have dealt with Office ribbon issues too much and have
developed an allergy. My rant about auto-arrangements is beside the
point because the OP just suggested a user-switchable compact view.


On Fri, 2010-04-23 at 22:33 +0200, Mario Vukelic wrote:
> On Fri, 2010-04-23 at 11:36 -0700, Eric Pritchett wrote:
> > I'd like to suggest having a Compact Menu View mode enabled by default
> > for most windows/apps.  The thinking is if a user only uses the File,
> > Edit, View, Help, etc 5 times out of 100 and uses the icons below it
> > 95/100 times then wouldn't it be better to hide the menu?  
> 
> MS Office did this at least up to Office 2003 (dunno about 2007/2010),
> and as far as I can tell it was a big failure. I know only two groups of
> users: those that turn it off immediately and those who are continually
> confused by it. We turn it off by default in our company (15,000 staff)
> because tests indicated that the number of generated helpdesk calls
> along the lines of "I know that this feature exists because I have used
> it before, but for the life of me I cannot find it anymore" would be
> rather large.
> 
> For proficient users it decreases the effectiveness of muscle memory. I
> don't hunt for menus in the Office apps I use a lot, it all works pretty
> automatic. I tried to work with this feature in Office, but every time
> the menus get rearranged it makes me stumble and pause to think and
> hunt. Just because I haven't used a particular feature for a few days or
> weeks does not mean that I want to go hunt for it.
> 
> I do not think that computers should rearrange UI elements autonomously
> until they have become much, much better at interpreting human
> intentions, which I guess is a hard AI problem.
> 
> Apparently some version of XP had a "feature" to move files and
> shortcuts from the desktop into a folder on the desktop, "unused items"
> or some such, objecting to what MS apparently perceived as untidiness on
> the user's part. It did this when the user had not interacted with the
> file for x amount of time (may have been 3 months). Unfortunately it did
> apparently not check whether the computer had been used at all during
> this time. Sure enough, my mother - who turns her computer on once in a
> blue moon - called me each time because "all my stuff is gone". Note
> that she also was used to launch applications from desktop shortcuts.
> 
> Now, this is a crass example of stupidity on Microsoft's part, and one
> that can easily be fixed or at least improved by taking actual computer
> usage into account. However, it still serves to illustrate how easily
> users freak out if their stuff is being rearranged autonomously*. 
> 
> 
> Other opinions: 
> http://discuss.fogcreek.com/joelonsoftware/default.asp?cmd=show&ixPost=94078
> 
> 
> Regards
> Mario
> 
> 
> * Users I know manage their files spatially, with dozens of files spread
> out over two large screens. When they need one, they will know that
> it's, say, in the top right corner of the right-hand screen. It looks
> messy and it may not seem or even objectively be the most efficient
> method, but it works for them and I must admit that it does make a
> certain sense in the context of their work.
> 
> 
> 
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