[Bf-funboard] Re: Toolbox Flash 2

[Matt Ebb]

On Monday, Nov 10, 2003, at 04:45 Australia/Sydney, Thorsten Wilms 
wrote:

> On Sun, Nov 09, 2003 at 05:11:06PM +0100, GSR - FR wrote:
>>
>> Have you tried doing a demo in which the menus open following the same
>> dir than the parent? To check distance vs changing dir.
>
> No, because opening submenus in same direction would enlarge the space
> the Toolbox needs, thereby increasing the propability that it and
> the mousecursor has to be relocated.
>
> Do you, considering the above, think that to not change directions 
> might
> be better? Perhaps with autoscrolling submenus?

I think it would be wise to try. It's important not to reduce interface 
issues to wholly quantitative analysis (such as size, mouse pointer 
distances), when a huge amount of interface design is qualitative 
(psychological, etc) as well. While the distance the mouse pointer has 
to travel is an issue, it's not the only issue - other things must be 
taken into account like logical information design and how the 
interface lives up to the user's expectations.

Particularly when the initial emphasis is placed on a directional 
system (even though it's not a true pie menu), it makes sense to 
continue that design idea throughout, rather than making the user learn 
rule after rule. So if people start dragging down toward the bottom 
right corner, they don't suddenly have to turn around 180 degrees and 
go back the other way, and then back the other way again, and so on - 
they can keep dragging in the same direction and make slight 
adjustments to their route to fold open submenus. I think it would feel 
much more comfortable this way, and would be a good idea to test.

Cheers

Matt