[Fwd: [ID Discuss] Mac Menu Bar Design]

[Ellen Reitmayr]

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In GIMP, they have a similar problem -> Each image is opened in another
window while there is a main (control) window. According to their
concept, File, as a general menu, should be in the toolbox only. But
they also provide it in all image windows as they found that users need
them there (even if they are not image-specific). They also found that
users like to have image-specific menus in the image window (which was
different in GIMP 1.x).

In Kontact, we try to work towards consistent menus as much as possible.
That means where it makes sense, the same functions are provided at the
same location. Still, it is not avoidable to provide component specific
menus. Providing all menus in each component would be an overkill!

I think if they plan to switch the menus, they should provide some
'orientation' menus -> File, Settings, Help should always be there, Edit
only if it makes sense. There should be an overview over the open
windows/modes which provides access to them.

However, I don't have much experience with the menu bar on top. I can
imagine it's harder to understand that it switches than if it is bound
to a window. But don't know - can't give a suggestion.

Cheers,
/el




seele at obso1337.org wrote:
> This is the start of an interesting thread on one of my subscribed mailing
> lists.  His dilemma is one similar to what I have seen in KDE,
> particularly in Kontact which enveloped Kmail, Kontact, etc..
> 
> Any particular thoughts?  If anything interesting comes of this thread,
> Ill be sure to foward it on.
> 
> -- Celeste
> 
> ---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
> Subject: [ID Discuss] Mac Menu Bar Design
> From:    "Jay Zipursky" <Jay.Zipursky at Creo.com>
> Date:    Fri, October 14, 2005 2:57 pm
> To:      discuss at ixdg.org
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> [Please voluntarily trim replies to include only relevant quoted material.]
> 
> Hi folks,
> 
> I¹d like to get some feedback on menu design for the Mac OS platform.
> 
> We have a non-document centric, client application that enables a few
> different types of tasks.  There are a handful of modeless windows the user
> can open up that each has a different context of use.  We are currently
> struggling with the menu bar design for the application because of the
> tension between the Apple Human Interface Guidelines and the different
> contexts each window offers.
> 
> The two extremes are:
> 
> 1) Have a single menu bar with all menu items.  Disable any items that
> aren¹t applicable to active window.  This design is consistent with the
> Apple HIGs but will most likely create a number of top-level menus that are
> specific to individual windows.
> 
> 2) Have a menu bar that contains menus specific to the active window only.
> (This is closer to what you¹d see in an MS Windows application.)
> 
> Complicating factors (aka ³real life²):
> 
> * Some menu items have a global context and should be available from any
> window.  For example, the File menu will have global items.
> * The ³best² place for some window-specific menu items might be in a menu
> like File or Edit.  For solution #2, those would mysteriously disappear when
> you switched windows.
> 
> We¹ve toyed with replacing menu items with buttons in the windows, but the
> development team has frowned on that idea.
> 
> I¹ve struggled to find other MacOS applications that are similar to this
> application, but I haven¹t seen anything yet.
> 
> Comments or pointers to examples would be great.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Jay

- --

______________________________________________________

Ellen Reitmayr          email: reitmayr at relevantive.de
Usability Engineer      mobil: +49.177.3325867
relevantive AG          fon:   +49.30.23455630
Zehdenicker Str. 21     fax:   +49.30.23455639
10119 Berlin            web:   www.relevantive.de
_______________________________________________________
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