unity-design team mailing list archive

[Ralph Green <sirable@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 1/28/13, Aditya Vaidya <kroq.gar78@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Also, to add to Chow's reasons, I'd say the implementation of the HUD kind
> of invalidates your claim that "menu intensive" applications are hard to
> use with Unity.
Maybe hard is the wrong word.  HUD uses a slow and cumbersome way to
manipulate programs.  Maybe someone finds it easier, but it has not
been the case with people I have demonstrated it to.

> On Mon, Jan 28, 2013 at 10:28 PM, Chow Loong Jin
>> Irrational yelling falling on deaf/stubborn ears is nothing new. When users ask
>> for behaviours that they're used to, rather than behaviours that are
>> intrinsically easier to use, with either weak or no empirical evidence to
>> back
 There is nothing intrinsically easier about the global menu.  It is
distracting, and slower to use.  It requires large mouse movements
where small ones would do before.  I takes my focus out of the
application I am trying to use and puts it into searching for the
menus when I need them.  It has no virtue that I have found.

>> their arguments, the right course of action is naturally to ignore them.
>>
>> >       So let’s approach this rationally People hate the vanishing menu
>> due to
>> > the fact that //some applications that are menu intensive// pile on the
>> fact
>> > that these applications are of the type that //people use to get work
>> done//.
>> > For example IDE’s for programming (eg Anjunta), office applications (eg
>> > Libreoffice) and Media editing (eg GIMP) there are plenty of uncommon
>> ones as
>> > well.
>>
>> I think that these examples are rather poorly made.
  I spend a lot of time driving remote computers using VNC.  The
vanishing global menu was way too hard to deal with there.  It was
invisible until you moved the mouse to just the right place, which is
much slower than having a local menu.  This is not a strange use case
and there is no reasonable way to maintain that global menus are more
efficient here.  I know the arguments about Fitts Law on the desktop.
I don't think they reflect a proper understanding of the law, but I
understand it.  It does not apply when your desktop is in a window on
your main desktop.  My standard procedure when setting up Unity
involves removing the global menu and fixing scroll bars.  It makes
Unity more usable.

  I am not pushing for Ubuntu to change Unity.  I used Unity for 2
years as my main desktop, but I've moved on.  I now use gnome fallback
mode and xfce mostly.   I think the attitude of telling this many
users that they should be ignored is not a healthy one for Ubuntu.
That is the main reason I am responding.

 I don't think Unity is hopeless.  It is a relatively poor desktop for
a standard PC.  The thing that may save it in the long run is that a
lot of people do seem to be moving to consumption devices like tablets
and phones.  The needs are different there and Unity is as good as
anything else I have seen on a tablet.  It may be better than the
alternatives, but I don't use tablets much.
Have a good day,
Ralph