unity-design team mailing list archive

[Andrew Laignel <a.laignel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

One thought on the global menu is one of scope.  Window controls, tab
controls and many other actions, as a general rule, only affect things
within their indicated container.  A tab control that affects things outside
of it's scope is bad as it invites unpredictability into the behaviour, it's
for this very reason that the URL bar is within the tab in Chrome.  Clicking
on a window/document on the screen as a result will alter UI elements
outside the implied document area, which just doesn't sit well with me.

Besides, looking at my Windows 7 machine (I use OSX as my primary platform
so am fairly unbiased) IE, Chrome, Firefox, Word and a growing list of
applications simply don't use the file menu anymore, instead opting for more
intuitive and friendly approaches.  It's 2010 and deciding on a global menu
essentially embeds a potentially obsolete UI device into the heart of the
entire look and feel of the OS ­ think Ericsson phones with the big stubby
antenna that was their signature, which looked pretty stupid when Nokia
developed the internal antenna.

If anything I would think that Apple now possibly consider the global menu
bar a mistake but are too entrenched to do anything about it.  I appreciate
Apple are known as 'the company' for UI design but to be totally frank OSX
has languished in recent years with Apple putting all their time and effort
into iOS which they are testing all their new UI ideas on and I've yet to
see a single app on my iPad use something like the file menu ­ it is this
that people should be looking to for inspiration rather than the 2000's OSX.

There seems to be this strange desire for the best part of a decade to keep
the bar at the top, despite the fact that on traditional Gnome 80% is wasted
space and the only truly useful thing on it ­ once you remove the global
menu ­ is the time and that alone is certainly not worth losing 22px for.
Most of the controls in the top bar are there simply because there is space
to fill and once you view it from the perspective of necessity it makes less
sense.  As a general rule the more used a function the more exposed it
should be, yet how many times a session does your average user use 'shut
down' or fast user switching?

For things like the clock, and for people who really want something like
fast user switching possibly some form of widget system that can be included
in the dock would be a better solution? ­ it certainly allows more
interesting visual feedback and interaction too and leads to the happy
situation of more choice rather than less.

Plus as someone else said multi monitors and large monitors easily defeat
any perceived benefits.  Just say no to the global menu!

(returns to lurking)