unity-design team mailing list archive

[Luke Benstead <kazade@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 18 February 2011 11:10, David Stevenson <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 18/02/11 04:38, Greg K Nicholson wrote:
>>> Why not integrate (and hide) the menu bar in the title bar instead for
>>> ummaximized windows?
>>
>> This makes sense logically.
>
> I also like this idea. My top panel has always been full, the first
> thing I do on any install is to delete the bottom bar and put all the
> information I want in the top bar. So now I need to hide information I
> have been used to having visible to make room for menus while leaving a
> title bar empty.
>
>> The massive downside to all of this is Fitts's law: the effective
>> target area of a menu bar is vastly reduced when it isn't at the
>> screen's edge. For that reason alone, and despite its logical and
>> aesthetic elegance, I think we have to reject this idea.
>
> Have users really been having problems clicking on menus? I know we are
> all different but I would not have thought this affected many users.
>
> David
>

Yeah, I don't think it's that much of a problem. Fitt's law keeps
being quoted as an excuse to do stuff over and above other factors.
I'm still unhappy that the global menu has been implemented despite
not-working well with dual-monitors, focus follows mouse, or really
large resolutions, but whenever this gets mentioned "Fitt's law" seems
to be the overriding excuse. We need to stop putting so much emphasis
on Fitt's law, it's only one element of good usability.

My suggestion is that we shouldn't be hiding menus behind titles, it
would be far more sensible (IMO) to consistently display the
application name in the title bar of each window as a menu, whose
submenu consists of the current menu bar (e.g. display "Firefox" next
to the window controls, clicking "Firefox" would display a drop down
menu containing "File", "Edit" etc.). If a window is maximized then
the panel becomes the title bar.

Luke.