unity-design team mailing list archive

["appi2012@xxxxxxxxx" <appi2012@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 9:23 PM, frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx <
frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> hello there,
>
> thinking about the File menu, it has become clear to me that the known
> approach is the best:
> replace "File" with either [Application Name] or alternatively, as
> Rhythmbox does it, a title that indicates the main purpose of the respective
> utility..
>
> i have checked and found Empathy, Simple Scan, Rhythmbox, Totem, Calculator
> and others implement this.
> Now what is the better menu title strategy?
> a) indicate the name of the application (Gwibber, Calculator)
> b) indicate the main purpose/function of the application ( Empathy: "Chat")
> c) indicate the content of the application is meant to handle (Rhythmbox:
> "Music")
>
>
> my personal preference is (b), if (b) is not available i'd suggest using
> (a).
>
> what do y'all think?
>

I agree, the current menu system is flawed. It is only from past experience
with Windows that anyone could figure out where to find a certain task in a
menu.

Yet why is this system still used? In my opinion, it is because it offers
desktop consistency. For example:

   - Quit, Close, New, and Print are all in the File Menu
   - Copy/Cut/Paste, and Preferences are in the Edit Menu.
   - etc.

But there has to be a way to achieve desktop consistency and have meaningful
lavels. How? Well, I propose the following (which is quite similar to
MacOSX, which has gotten it right in this regard):

____________________________________________________
|[App Name]|[Doc Type]| Edit | Tools | Help |
----------------------------------------------------


   - [App Name]: e.g. "Rhythmbox." This menu contains everything to do with
   the entire application. In general, it would contain the "View" menu as a
   submenu, "Plugins," "Preferences," "About," "Close," and "Quit."
   - [Doc Type]: e.g "Music." This menu contains anything to do with the
   stuff the application deals with. Items like "New," "Save," "Export,"
   "Import," and "Properties"
   - Edit: Would contain all normal items in edit except for Preferences.
   All other items are things dealing with the editing of the file. The only
   way preferences fits in is in the sense of "Editing Preferences." But since
   that phrase does not work with anything else in the menu, it doesn't belong.
   - Tools: This space is for utilities that help the user. Therefore,
   things like "Find [& replace]" and extensions' menus belong here.
   - Help: This menu is for access to manuals. Figuring out the version of
   softwares I'm running has nothing to do with Helping, so it doesn't belong
   here.

This is just something I thought of off the top of my head, so it is no way
perfect. But it is a step in the right direction, and I feel that if
designers came together and came up with a definitive spec for menu
structure, usabilty in ubuntu would benefit tremendously.