5 replies to this topic

[truefusion]

I'm in the process of designing my own desktop environment for systems capable of running the X window system, and i got to thinking just what would be the best possible way to design the start menu. I'm not entirely sure of the practicality of this concept; however, to me it appears to be better than whatever is currently out there—but you decide. The concept is similar to the simple pop-up menus that you see today but considers more of a toolbox way of displaying the program shortcuts. I didn't want it to take up space in the panel itself like today's start menus generally do. That involves placing it on top of the panel, but, due to this concept, attempting to take up as little space as possible. Here's a current mock-up of the panel (it'll be shorter in the actual desktop environment):


Here's the start menu in action (couldn't get it at a higher quality):


If you have any ideas for improvement, suggest them here.

[jlhaslip]

Got room in there for a graphic for each of the Softwares? Like the Default Ubuntu Drop-downs.
Graphical interfaces are so "web 2.0"...

[truefusion]

jlhaslip, on Apr 3 2009, 10:42 PM, said:

Got room in there for a graphic for each of the Softwares?

You mean the icons? If so, then yeah, they'll be implemented whenever i get to that part of the development and figure out how to obtain the icons. I would have to figure out, though, how to maintain performance when updating the menus, since they don't really update themselves. I figured perhaps another XML file would help.

[rogerthecamel]

This seems to protrude quite far into the working space. Wouldn't this get in the way of windows you are working in? What if you had your entire task bar and start menu appear around the mouse when a certain mouse button is clicked, or when you move ur cursor to one of the screens corners. It does look nice though, would be interesting to try out. One problem with having the start menu a layer above the tasks is that it makes the start menu harder to click as you can move past it and click current tasks by mistake, Fitts law would determine that they are best put on the edge of the screen.

[truefusion]

rogerthecamel, on Apr 19 2009, 08:43 AM, said:

This seems to protrude quite far into the working space. Wouldn't this get in the way of windows you are working in?

The example was all done in the GIMP and not an actual screen shot, but the actual panel will (should) be about as tall as KDE 3's panel. I don't think it would get in the way in an unproductive or unintuitive way. The menus when clicked on would indeed overlap the windows, but after clicking on a shortcut, the menu would close back to its original state. I may also introduce an auto-close feature based on whether or not the mouse is any longer over the menu. But i could also take an approach similar to GNOME and place the start menu above with the task bar below.

rogerthecamel, on Apr 19 2009, 08:43 AM, said:

What if you had your entire task bar and start menu appear around the mouse when a certain mouse button is clicked, or when you move ur cursor to one of the screens corners.

Interesting idea. I could have somewhat of a pie menu appear upon, say, Meta+MiddleMouseButton, but i am uncertain on how that would affect windows, as some programs have their own mouse shortcuts which may activate at the same time as the menu. But i could just limit it to the desktop (like some DEs do). Having it appear when the cursor pushes onto an edge seems a bit time consuming compared to the rest; and if it is to appear instantly upon touching the edge (i.e. without a push), that could become inconvenient. But if i were to implement a kind of pie menu, it would have to be its own separate plug-in.

rogerthecamel, on Apr 19 2009, 08:43 AM, said:

It does look nice though, would be interesting to try out. One problem with having the start menu a layer above the tasks is that it makes the start menu harder to click as you can move past it and click current tasks by mistake, Fitts law would determine that they are best put on the edge of the screen.

I did think of having it placed under the task bar by user's decision (i.e. by setting that in the settings). I was also planning on having keyboard shortcuts for the menus, like perhaps Meta+F#, or Meta+the_first_letter_of_the_menu_or_whatever_letter_is_underlined. Fitts's law looks interesting; i will have to check it out later.

[rogerthecamel]

I would personally avoid pie/circular menus. While there has been some research to suggest their use can be advantageous once you learn the location of items spatially, they are confusing to look at and hard to visually navigate. If you had a pop up menu I would think that a grid based one could be better, as long as it doesn't look too cluttered, it really depends on what you feel is the easiest to look through. You could try it out by making a mock up of a pop up menu with items in a list, in a pie and in a grid, and then just see how long it takes for you to figure out where things are and how easy it feels to look through. A list menu may even be the best.

Interfering with programs defaults for mouse clicks can be a pain, you need to find a balance between a shortcut that isn't going to interfere with many programs and one that is easy to get to and remember. If its only for yourself and you have a mouse with more than 3 buttons, then that can be a good place to start.

Things like spatial memory and Fitts law are key when trying to design interfaces like this, especially one that will be used many times every day. The good is though, that by designing it yourself you get to try it and change it, you'll know pretty quickly if you have a good interface or a mind numbingly frustrating one.