unity-design team mailing list archive

[Thorsten Wilms <t_w_@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 06/08/2012 12:17 AM, Omar B. wrote:
> The solution is to make Indicators not behave as if they were Menu items
> (like the items in the global menu).
>
> When you click an Indicator, why just hovering (usually by mistake) to
> the next one switches to that one ?

I mean to recall that it is a stated design goal, to have the indicator 
menus behave like any other menu.

In the case of menus with text-heads, switching between menu-bodies on 
hovering, without additional click is useful to look through what's 
available and for easily correcting selection after a badly aimed click. 
I admit that those reasons seem less applicable to indicator menus.

Still, with so much similarity in placement and behavior, it would be 
odd if there was a difference in this detail. Exceptions are to be 
avoided, for the benefit of lean implementations, shorter documentation 
and simpler mental models.

The likelihood of accidental triggering of adjacent menus can be reduced by:
- taking the trajectory into account
- making sure every menu-item can be reached with a straight downward 
movement
- increasing the padding around the indicators
- introducing a delay before another menu would open (listed for 
completeness, I would expect this to be frustrating in practice)
OR: by not automatically opening other menus without additional click, 
as you proposed, where I would say it should be the same for all menus.


--
Thorsten Wilms

thorwil's design for free software:
http://thorwil.wordpress.com/