unity-design team mailing list archive

[Matt Richardson <m.richardson.1990@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I do like the idea of moving the window controls as you suggest, but the
suggestion here was to move the indicators so that they fall outside of
the window rectangle.
I also agree that if users had a reasonable idea about system semantics
then designing accordingly would mean design would match user expectation.
My experience is that most users don't think about the system semantics.
As an example, many people think of the office suite as a reason to
choose an operating system, despite the fact that the office suite is
not technically part of the operating system.

Take that perspective on whether indicators should be moved outside the
window rectangle and it's my opinion that most users would be more
bothered by increasing the mouse travel distance than by semantically
correct placement.

Matt

p.s. My use of the word 'surely' was simply a figure of speech. In
future I will try to make it clear that I am expressing only my own opinion.

On 08/08/12 00:43, Benjamin Bach wrote:
>
>
>     On Aug 2, 2012, at 2:45 AM, Matt Richardson
>     <m.richardson.1990@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>     <mailto:m.richardson.1990@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>
>     > I often hear suggestions like this; about where something should be
>     > placed or how it should behave because it belongs to this or that
>     > technical part of the system, but surely something should be placed
>     > where it is most logical to place it in terms of user
>     interaction, not
>     > system semantics.
>
>
> Not "surely". Just "maybe". There are not definitive answers.
>
> System semantics are important as well, because having a correct
> understanding will guide the user's intuition.... blah blah blah.
>
> Anyways, here's an example of how to alter the top bar such that the
> title of a window + its buttons will be correctly attached to the
> so-called rectangle of the window, adhearing to those spacial
> ("gestalt") laws of UI design -- without taking up more space:
>
> http://ge.tt/9qRlGgL/v/0?c
>
> - Ben
>
>