unity-design team mailing list archive

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

On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 15:51, Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

>
> frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx wrote on 15/11/10 17:54:
> >
> > On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 14:40, Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >...
> >> frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx> wrote on
> >...
> >>> The Sound Menu wiki didn't specify anything about horizontal menu
> >>> elements, the only reference is this mail of yours..
> >>
> >> That's not correct. The playback item has been specified since May.
> >> <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoundMenu#Playback%20item>
> >
> > I'm sorry!! I meant there's no general guidelines for designing
> > horizontal menu elements in there..
> >...
>
> There aren't enough of them to deserve guidelines yet.


Then would it be premature to take the currently 2 items as a reference
point for some premeditation already?
I've seen more of this in e.g. the Network Menu spec, horizontal on|off
toggles for example.

On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 20:21, Mark Shuttleworth <mark@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
> 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
>

let's think it through then!
The "playback item" and the "volume item" already expose useful facts for us
to begin with.

Horizontally organized menu items
* expose conceptual proximity (relationship)
* present a menu within a menu
* are well suited for polar controls (e.g. on|off, previous|next, zero|full)
* look and feel best with icons or buttons

Solaris offered an interesting experience with horizontal vs vertical
menus..
Bottom line to me was, as everywhere, horizontally branching menus are
submenus.
We are introducing a quicker experience compared to "expanding yet another
submenu", it should be simple and self-explanatory.