> "Provide an access key for each item. However, to enhance their spatial
> efficiency and readability, do not show keyboard shortcuts in popup
> menus."
>
> ... but I suppose it makes sense.
>
> If I read that right "access key" is a synonym for mnemonics and it is
> only shortcuts like Ctrl+Shift+A that shouldn't be shown. Sounds good
I am not convinced by this at all; what exactly is spatial efficiency of
a menu? When I open a menu, I do so because I want to do something with
the menu. What matters to me is whether I can do that particular task
efficiently, and having a keyboard shortcut visible in the menu will
assist me it that. The main advantage of kbd shortcuts is that they are
consistent, so I will memorise them through usage. So if the menu
reminds me that instead of calling up a menu I could have used a
shortcut, in time I learn to bypass the menu altogether (I am not
hypothesizing here, this is how I actually learn kbd shortcuts).
(Mnemonics, on the other hand, are menu-specific and have to be
memorised on menu by menu basis, or as long sequences.) I personally do
not care that for the shortcuts to be present the menu will be 30px
wider, after all I open the menu to look at the menu, not at the screen
behind it.
There is a certain tendency in GNOME to hide things from the user, to
provide preferences without appropriate UI, and to make it difficult for
the user to do things in a way that is different from what the usability
people think is the right way. To me usability is to a large extent a
question of personal preference; what works for me might not work for
you and what works for you might not suit me. I am not keen to have that
'users do not know what is good for them' attitude imported into AW
design, UI or otherwise.
Usability is also about consistency; I find it not only irritating but
also hindering my ability to use an application efficiently if when I
update it the menus change, the shortcuts change, etc. UI changes should
not be gratuitous and I consider much of the recent UI changes to fall
into that category. For example, I will have to unlearn the Alt+F,F
sequence I use all the time. To access the recent files via kbd is more
involved now than it was before -- I often need to open the top file on
the recent list, which simply meant Alt+F,F,Enter -- now I have scroll
through the menu or use the mouse; but hey, we are HIG compliant!
On a related note, I understand that M$ spends lots of money on
usability research, so having the Word interface as a starting point for
our own is not as a bad thing as some might seem to think; there is also
the fact that lot of people are familiar with the Word interface
(because they might have to use it at work, etc.), and this too is a
usability factor. That is not to say we have to follow Word sheepishly,
or that we could not improve the interface, but I would like any
improvements to be driven by _real_ user feedback and some common sense.
Tomas
Received on Wed Feb 23 09:11:36 2005
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Wed Feb 23 2005 - 09:11:36 CET