Ubuntu desktop moving application menus back into application windows

in linux on 2014-02-21 19:37 (#3EK)

Ars Technica reports that the next version of Ubuntu (14.04, or Trusty Tahr ; a Long Term Support Release) will allow users an option to display menu bars inside their parent application windows -- a move away from Mac OSX interface conventions towards the menu placement more commonly used in Windows.

"Despite displaying the menu contents outside of the window, the menus are still window-specific," we noted in a review of Ubuntu 12.04 in May 2012. "By design, the global menu bar displays the menu of the focused window. This proves awkward in some applications with dialogs and multiple windows."

The intended result is to "fix the main UX bug we have [had] in Unity since its very first release: the menus being hard to find or too far from their parent window ", according to a blog post Canonical employee Marco Trevisan . "The amount of technical work needed [is] not to be underestimated [...] one of the blockers we had in 12.04 was our dependency on the legacy compiz decor plugin + gtk-window-decorator, that has worked 'OK' in the last years but -- apart from using deprecated technologies (gtk2 in primis) -- it really would have made this concept impossible to realize."

A tahr appears to be some species of mountain goat indigenous to the Himalayas.

I actually like global menus ... (Score: 3, Insightful)

by danieldvorkin@pipedot.org on 2014-02-21 20:03 (#45)

... but I like choice even more. I really wish interface designers (or their bosses) would get this through their heads: when people are used to doing something a certain way, don't force them to do it a different way, unless it's absolutely necessary for the application to function. If you come up with a new way that you think is better, great, make it an option or even set it as the default--but always offer your users a choice of switching back to the behavior they're used to, preferably without jumping through a lot of hoops, or you will accomplish nothing good.

Re: I actually like global menus ... (Score: 2, Informative)

by jonh@pipedot.org on 2014-02-21 20:53 (#47)

In this case, it seems like they are giving you the choice. There's a new option in the Appearance Settings , which defaults to the current behaviour -- I expect that they'll want to change the default in some future release.

I think it's almost axiomatic that any significant UI changes will cause outrage in the short term (e.g. Windows 8, Slashdot Beta, any time Facebook changes anything, Xbox 360 dashboard, Netflix...). People hate change; even actual interface improvements will probably be met with hostily in the short term. As a developer, you can expect at least a couple of weeks of overwhelmingly negative feedback for any significant UI alterations you make -- but if you're not starting to see mixed to positive to responses once the initial shock dies down, then you may have to admit that you have actually made things worse...

Re: I actually like global menus ... (Score: 1)

by danieldvorkin@pipedot.org on 2014-02-21 21:01 (#48)

Well, yeah--the decision to put that option in is one of the few times I can think of recently where the people in charge of UI (don't get me started on "UX") have actually listened to their users. I just wish it happened more often, and that there weren't so many boneheaded, arbitrary changes in the first place.

Re: I actually like global menus ... (Score: 2, Interesting)

by hyper@pipedot.org on 2014-02-21 23:54 (#4B)

Options options options. Give users a choice if possible. The heart of enlightenment.

Speaking of changes, I am looking at the latest OpenOffice.org Calc. It has the standard dropdown menus at the top starting from the left, File Edit Insert Format Tools Data Window Help, and on the right a large ribbonesque properties box taking up 1/7 of the screen showing icons for text alignment orientation cell border etc. I am not offended by this. It has been sitting there for the last few hours. I haven't used any of the options in this spreadsheet. It isn't offensive. It has an x in the top right corner for closing it.

I find the MS Office ribbon highly offensive. I don't find this offensive. I can't quite put my finger on why.

Your comment has inspired a theory: In OpenOffice Calc I can close this large panel of icons down easily. In MS Office I can't. Perhaps this simple ability to be able to remove the parts of the interface makes it more appealing.

Or maybe that it is taking up horizontal room for which I have lots and not crowding the screen vertically.

Re: I actually like global menus ... (Score: 1)

by danieldvorkin@pipedot.org on 2014-02-22 01:04 (#4D)

>Your comment has inspired a theory: In OpenOffice Calc I can close this large panel of icons down easily. In MS Office I can't. Perhaps this simple ability to be able to remove the parts of the interface makes it more appealing.

Yep. I'm pretty sure that's it.