unity-design team mailing list archive

["frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx" <frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx>]

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.