Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site wanginst.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!wanginst!vishniac From: vishniac@wanginst.UUCP (Ephraim Vishniac) Newsgroups: net.micro.mac Subject: Chuqui's enhancement(?) to user interface Message-ID: <1153@wanginst.UUCP> Date: Mon, 30-Sep-85 07:57:38 EDT Article-I.D.: wanginst.1153 Posted: Mon Sep 30 07:57:38 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 2-Oct-85 20:32:24 EDT Distribution: net Organization: Wang Institute, Tyngsboro, Ma. 01879 Lines: 38 Chuq: I tried to send this to you directly, but it was returned as undeliverable after a week's delay. -------------------real message starts here----------------------- References: <3281@nsc.UUCP> My immediate response to your idea (active menubar items) is that it's sufficiently confusing to novices that one ought to look around for alternatives. One alternative does come to mind: In many programs that I like the design of (not necessarily Mac programs), shift-whatever means "do some obvious extension of whatever." For example, to scroll by screenfuls, you click in the grey region of the scrollbar. To scroll by pages, I suggest you should shift-click in the grey region of the scrollbar. To go to an extremity of your document, you should option-click (shift-option-click?) in the grey region of the scroll bar. I like this kind of design for several reasons. First, and extremely important, is that it does not clutter the screen. Instead, it extends the power of existing controls in a logical way. Second, it's very easy to standardize, and nothing surprising will happen if you try to use it in applications that don't support it. In fact, nothing very surprising will happen if you do it by accident. Third, it's not a *change* to the existing user interface, but a (consistent, I hope) extension of it. I'll be very interested to hear the results of your survey. I hope to see a response that exhibits the innate sensitivity of Mac users to clean, elegant design. I fear a plague of kluges. I'll leave it to our mutual audience to decide which category I've contributed to. Ephraim Vishniac [apollo, bbncca, cadmus, decvax, harvard, linus, masscomp]!wanginst!vishniac vishniac%Wang-Inst@Csnet-Relay -- Ephraim Vishniac [apollo, bbncca, cadmus, decvax, harvard, linus, masscomp]!wanginst!vishniac vishniac%Wang-Inst@Csnet-Relay