overuse of icons in menus

[(=?utf-8?q?=60=60-=5F-=C2=B4=C2=B4?=) -- Fernando]

On Monday 11 February 2008 11:44:03 Michael T wrote:
> 
> Hello,
>  
> I originally posted this as a wishlist item on Launchpad, but was advised to send it to the appropriate
> mailing list (so I hope that this is it :) ).  Something which slightly annoys me in Ubuntu (and more
> generally in KDE and Gnome) is the overuse of icons in menus.  Most (if not all) GUI style guidelines
> recommend only using icons in menus where they are instantly recognisable to the user, so that they can
> identify the menu entry from the icon faster than they would be able to read the menu text.  See for
> instance
> http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/XHIGMenus/chapter_17_section_3.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP30000356-TPXREF116.  
> In other situations, the icon slows the user down, as they will automatically look at the icon before they
> read the text.  If you look at for example the "K" menu in Kubuntu, you will see that every menu entry,
> including every application listed, has an icon next to it, which to my mind makes it look somewhat
> unprofessional.
> Does anyone else have thoughts on this?  I realise of course that in many cases this is something that can
> only be fixed upstream, but I wanted to start a discussion somewhere :)

In my opinion, even if icons make ppl loose [inicially], after they get used to them, it much faster to look for the icon, then to read the all text lines.


>  
> Regards,
>  
> Michael
>  
> BTW, please excuse the messy hotmail formatting - this is my "disposable" address for posting to mailing lists and places where the address will be publicly visible.

Then I guess you need a gmail account... great formating and it takes very well care of all spam, and unwanted emails.


-- 
BUGabundo  :o)
(``-_-´´)	http://Ubuntu.BUGabundo.net
Linux user #443786    GPG key 1024D/A1784EBB
My new micro-blog @ http://BUGabundo.net
ps. My emails tend to sound authority and aggressive. I'm sorry in advance. I'll try to be more assertive as time goes by...

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part.
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/attachments/20080215/304cdb95/attachment.sig>