kickoff fusion idea and mockup

[J.R. Mauro]

2008/7/11 Bert Saxby <bertsaxby at yahoo.com>:

> Well, the glory of Plasma...Someone can write another menu system and
> make it a widget.  I suspect we're going to see a lot of menu systems in
> the
> future. :-)
>
> My personal thoughts, I agree with most of what Florian has said.
> I find Kickoff to be a wretched mess, but I like the way it looks when you
> first
>

Please don't spout "X sucks." That doesn't help. State your criticisms, back
them with
use cases, and offer a solution.


>
> open it although it's a bit HUGE. Application navigation in Kickoff is
> ridiculous regardless of
> usability studies.  If I can't make sense of it, or it wastes time it's not
> usable. It's definitely a time
> waster if you don't have the app you want present off the root menu.
>
> As for just digging around in Kickoff applications it is soooo easy to get
> lost. Imagine if there were
> also Up/down arrows available in Kickoff navigation?...which by the way I
> think is curiously
> omitted, but probably not wanting to confuse the user anymore with the
> complications already present.
> Up down arrows with labels could take you from one category to another if
> you were inside a sub menu.
> That would simplify navigation a bit, but again it might complicate this
> 'simple' interface.
>
> So the argument goes...search for what you want...The problem with
> searching is very few noobs
> know anything about the applications available on Linux.  Perhaps worse,
> the search system in
> Kickoff has no intuitive way back to the menu system. Sure erasing the
> search term takes you back,
> but how does someone know this? Training?  I suppose but not really an
> answer I think. Search to me
> indicates I'm lost from the start.  Not good...plus what male asks for
> directions? Heh heh.
>

Search will improve with Nepomuk, but I'd like to point out that you don't
need to know the *name* of an
application, just what it does. If you type "internet" you get browsers, and
that's the idea. This could be improved.
For example, I was introducing KDE 4 to people who had never seen Linux at
all and showed them the search.
I wanted to get them to Gwenview. I searched for "picture" and "graphic" and
it did not come up. Gwenview did come
up when I searched for "images". I think ideally, a search for any of these
multiple "tags" should bring up Gwenview.
And hopefully Nepomuk will enable this, but if not, please, Kickoff
developers, could you look into this?

I agree on the "getting back to main" issue; deleting your search terms is
unintuitive. Perhaps a "back" or "main menu"
button should be added. I also think that stars added to the menu items in
"applications" to add them to favorites would
be of great benefit. Also, re-ordering favorites items would help.

Kickoff developers: what is your input on these issues? Will some/all be
addressed? Are these good ideas? I'd like to start
a rational, helpful, and civil dialog about this. Kickoff is important as it
is a central part of the interface.


Thanks!


>
> I prefer right click> Run command versus using Kickoff, but only because I
> know the
> applications I have available.  For a noob, run command is virtually
> useless. Kudos though to
> whoever is working on 'run command' btw.  The eye candy is pure genius.
>

This has little to do with Kickoff, but you make a good point.


>
> For me I'll stick with the traditional menu and perhaps someday when I
> learn to code better
> I'll make a widget that makes sense to me and we can debate its merits or
> lack thereof. :-)
>
> Peace to everyone...I'm going on vacation!  No internet for at least a
> week...gotta give the
> carpal tunnel a rest and run a defrag on the brain. Cheers!
>
>
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