Upgrading to 11.04 - Desktop

[rikona]

Hello Liam,

Sunday, May 1, 2011, 9:28:52 AM, Liam wrote:

>> In Firefox an image of the Menu Bar became visible when "Customise" was
>> accessed, but that's all it was, an image with no functionality. It also
>> disappeared again when the Customise dialogue was closed. It seems that the
>> only way to check the version information is via Synaptic (or dpkg) and this
>> is not as satisfactory as Help/About.

LP> You did not explore for long enough or thoroughly enough!

Or, perhaps, Unity is just not as intuitive as older UIs. If a UI is
very intuitive, I wouldn't have to explore much, if at all - I could
just start getting things done.

LP> The menu bar is still there, but it has moved. It is now in the
LP> top panel, overlaid on top of the title bar. It is hidden until
LP> you move the mouse over the top panel or press the Alt key to
LP> access the menus using the keyboard.

One trend I don't like is to hide more and more functionality as time
goes on. The goal seems to be a completely blank screen, with only a
pretty picture there. Makes nice artwork, but doesn't sound very
intuitive.

My ideal UI is one that helps me find out how to do something - not
hinder me. Blank screens don't do that. I prefer a perhaps cluttered
screen that is intuitive and helpful instead of just pretty.

As you noted, Unity was not very intuitive. The answer will likely be
RTFM - a very poor substitute for a well done, intuitive interface.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't we going in a less productive,
less intuitive direction? If you don't think so please tell me, with
very specific examples showing how it is more intuitive.

I'd appreciate your help in trying to understand why/how it is so
good/intuitive/more productive.

-- 

 rikona