unity-design team mailing list archive

[Mark Shuttleworth <mark@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 09/11/10 20:05, frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Hi Mark,
>
> On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 20:21, Mark Shuttleworth <mark@xxxxxxxxxx
> <mailto:mark@xxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>
>     On 09/11/10 01:36, frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx
>     <mailto:frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>     On Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 15:54, Mark Shuttleworth <mark@xxxxxxxxxx
>>     <mailto: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.
>
>     I don't think we have a comprehensive horizontal-nav guideline,
>     yet. I do think we have a policy that cases where horizontal
>     behaviour is introduced need to be carefully thought through and
>     documented -
>
>
> The Sound Menu spec is exemplary, thanks for that!
>  
>
>     I thought for example that the Sound Menu specified the following
>     behaviour for the playback controls: moving down or up to the
>     playback controls should place the visible focus on the play
>     button, where space would pause/play, and left/right would trigger
>     previous/next returning the focus immediately to the play button.
>
>
> It might be specced, but it's not implemented. I didn't find a bug for
> that yet, so here's a new one:
> "no visible focus on horizontal controls"
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/indicator-sound/+bug/673185
>
> the keyboard controls don't work for me, yet, i guess that's still in
> the making, is it?

Conor is the right person to ask on this!

Mark

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