Common Usability Terms: pt. VI: the Dock
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 18th Nov 2007 15:46 UTC
Graphics, User Interfaces This is the sixth article in a series on common usability and graphical user interface related terms [part I | part II | part III | part IV | part V]. 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 VI, we focus on the dock.
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RE[4]: @google_ninja
by tupp on Wed 21st Nov 2007 20:19 UTC in reply to "RE[3]: @google_ninja "
tupp
Member since:
2006-11-12

No Mac fan boy

Sure you aren't. Nobody is a Mac fanboy.


Of course, it emulates the behavior of Mac...

Perhaps you would care to be specific on exactly how the window configurations of Windows Photoshop and the Gimp emulate the Mac.


BTW GIMP and usability even if at the same paragraph doesn't mix...

Not really. The Gimp just gets a bad rap because a lot of people who try it are already conditioned to Photoshop, and, perhaps, because it lacks a few features. Often, one assumes that a new application has inferior usability, because that application doesn't work like the one with which they are familiar.


So, if you really want to take advantage of the "infinitely large" targets on the screen edge, put the toolbars and pallet buttons there (some *nix WMs/desktops allow this configuration with certain apps).
You know, Menu happens to be there already...

In OSX, you are correct -- almost everything has already been decided for you and you cannot change it. However, with *nix and Windows, one has many more choices.


I've been using the menu system system since the dawn of the times (ie- Amiga) I know what feels better and Fitt's law just happen to show I'm right.

What are you right about? You never seem to make any specific claims.

By the way, GUI menus appeared in the Xerox Alto over a decade before the Amiga. I am not going to bother linking another screenshot -- look at the ones posted earlier in this thread.


So, with the Mac menu-bar always at the top of the screen, the targets are always the furthest distance away from the work -- an OSX detriment.
Although far it is reached faster, and it's not even me saying it, usability tests are...

Perhaps you could reference these tests. Did they test varying distances between the starting position and the targets on the screen edge?


By the way, a target isn't easy to hit just because you put it on the edge of the screen -- try hitting on the edge of the screen an "infinitely large" target that is one pixel wide.
How do you know, you obviously doesn't use it.

Well, how about if I put it another way:

I will bet you US$1000.00 that nine out of ten random people cannot, in a single attempt, click on a white, 1-pixel target centered on the top edge of a black, 1024x768 screen, given a standard pointer positioned on the bottom edge of the screen and two seconds (a usability eternity) to accomplish the task.

Care to put your money where your mouth is?

Edited 2007-11-21 20:22

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