unity-design team mailing list archive

[Omar B. <estelar57@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I also don't generally think we should completely substitute the traditional menus.

Let's think for a second how would a company like Apple would do this. I bet they would add a little search Icon next to their global menu which would then open a search-box, just like pressing ALT opens the search on the HUD.

Anyway, that's my opinion on how they would implement it if they were to copy it (yes, for competitors am pretty sure will be worth copying :D, so dont be surprised if it happens).

So that's what i think. HUD should complement (at least for now till they refine the experience and make it so good that the majority will use it more than the traditional menu). And maybe we could have a windicator with a search icon next to the global menu for mouse user discoverability.

Anyway, for apps with lots of options and complicated menus or hidden advanced options, this is awesome. In fact there were some experiments from the Waterloo edu labs with Gimp to do just this and make it very easy to get started with:

http://www.adaptablegimp.org/

I must say the difference for a new user using Adaptable gimp is huge and HUD can bring this to almost all apps.

> Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:03:56 +0100
> From: marco@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> To: ayatana@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [Ayatana] HUD design ideas
> 
> Hi,
> I read today about new HUD for Unity and I think the idea is brilliant.
> But at the moment its only orientated to search menu entries.
> In my opinion the HUD have the potential to cover both. Command Search 
> (Keyboard) and menu structure (Mouse Control)
> Here some ideas that should work:
> 1. Remove the whole menu from the Top Bar and replace it with a button. 
> If the user click on the button or hover the HUD should open. Also keep 
> the possibility to start the HUD with "Alt". So you don't have anymore 
> the problem that applications with a lot of menu entries overlap with 
> the app indicators (Gimp, LibreOffice).
> 2. The default view of the HUD should you show the normal menu structure 
> of a application. So you can search a command by clicking through the 
> structure or search by typing.
> 3. Add the possibility that commands of a application could be add to a 
> favourite list. Every item of this list should be shown as a icon on the 
> right side of the HUD "Start Button". So you give the users the 
> possibility to create a own shortcut list for every application.
> 
> regards,
> BlueCase
> 
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