unity-design team mailing list archive

[GonzO <gonzo@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, May 25, 2011 at 9:52 PM, Ian Santopietro <isantop@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> But who said the majority of Ubuntu users don't like the global menu?

I don't think anyone did, though it was pointed out that on this list
it is generally disliked.

However, this link
(https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2011-April/032988.html)
has been floating around for a while.  Relevant bit:

"8/10 people could find a window's menus, but 7/8 of them learned to
    access them by hovering over maximized close/minimize/unmaximize
    buttons then moving horizontally -- which was extremely slow, and
    failed whenever the window wasn't maximized."

So, on a *maximized* window, two people couldn't even find the menus,
and of the eight who could, seven of them repeatedly had to take more
time to use them.

This document (http://design.canonical.com/2010/11/usability-testing-of-unity/)
has also been bandied about, but for all its length, it is
suspiciously devoid of any discussion about the global menu system.

Then there's Ars Technica, which graces us with a seven-page review of
Unity (http://arstechnica.com/open-source/reviews/2011/05/riding-the-narwhal-ars-reviews-unity-in-ubuntu-1104.ars/3).
 I linked to page 3 because it is entirely dedicated to the Global
Menu system.  Though they praise it for its robustness and
engineering, the last paragraph is telling:

"Perhaps it's just a manifestation of my obsessive-compulsive
tendencies, but I found the inconsistent menubar title behavior and
idiosyncratic launcher titling to be extremely grating during regular
use. I would simply prefer to not have any title at all in the
menubar. Displaying the menus on mouse roll-over seems like a poor
move for usability in general, because the location of the menus won't
be immediately obvious to users."

So the one "unofficial" usability study says some damning things about
it, the "official" study doesn't even mention it, and Ars' opinion
actually contains the words "extremely grating during regular use".

While I haven't seen "this is a deal-breaker" outside of this mailing
list, there is some negativity out there, and I for sure have yet to
see anyone really sing the praises of the Global Menu System.

--G