Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 7th Nov 2007 13:39 UTC
This is the fourth article in a series on common usability and graphical user interface related terms [part I | part II | part III]. On the internet, and especially in forum discussions like we all have here on OSNews, it is almost certain that in any given discussion, someone will most likely bring up usability and GUI related terms - things like spatial memory, widgets, consistency, Fitts' Law, and more. The aim of this series is to explain these terms, learn something about their origins, and finally rate their importance in the field of usability and (graphical) user interface design. In part IV today, we focus on 
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Member since:
2006-05-26
You make excellent points, but other than it not becoming less important with training, there are a lot of people out there with less than ideal coordination due to whatever reasons, and Fitt's Law is their friend: with certain limitations people may have, no amount of training will make it easy to hit something, because they just don't have the coordination for it.
Also, even with training, IIRC Apple (or someone else) showed that because there's a high probability that the user will overshoot their intended target, they automatically slow down their mouse movements, to the point where the time taken to move the shorter distance (compared to the global menu on the side of the screen) actually increases: thus, it still matters for actual speed: the only thing that changes is user's perception of whether it's faster to have a localized menubar or a global menubar.
Admittedly, once you have more than one application in use, it can be rather confusing as to which one holds control of the menu bar, and the menu changing quickly can quite possibly be disorienting: in that respect, having the menubar attached firmly to the window it controls is less confusing.