[Libreoffice-ux-advise] Toolbar look improvement (toolbar option button removal)

[Christoph Noack]

Hi Kendy, hi Cor!

Am Montag, den 13.06.2011, 10:11 +0200 schrieb Jan Holesovsky:
...
> On 2011-06-11 at 23:25 +0200, Christoph Noack wrote:
...
> 
> > But (a huge but) we should prepare for _serious_ noise if we remove the
> > option buttons. Especially since we break with Microsoft Office 2003
> > (Windows) behavior, and we have impact on the usability for
> > close-to-no-context-menus platforms like Mac OS X.
> 
> I guess that similarity to 2003 will not be that a big issue; 2003 comes
> from the days when the UX had a trend of overwhelming the users with the
> possibilities to configure just everything.  Today, I see the trend of
> giving the user maximum of the workplace for her/his work, with minimum
> distraction - and at least for me, these buttons are distracting :-)

1:0 for Kendy :-)

Seriously, you're right that (early) MSO and (current) OOo tended
towards "add it first, people may remove it manually". The hard thing
is, for us, to remove stuff but keep the really needed functionality
accessible/visible.

...

> > So, I do have two proposals to solve these inconsistencies - but I'm
> > still unsure whether people will (more than) complain. Touching this
> > functionality gives a 50/50 chance for improvement/non-improvement.
> > 
> > Proposal 1: Based on your proposal ...
> >       * In all cases, keep the context menu as it is today (e.g. show
> >         the remaining items if the toolbar cannot be fully shown and
> >         hides some items).
> >       * Docked toolbar, sufficient space: (like you proposed)
> >       * Docked toolbar, limited space:
> >               * remove the toolbar options
> >               * keep the items being shown due to limited space for the
> >                 usual toolbar
> >               * remove the downwards triangle
> >               * center the double-arrow (>>) that indicates items are
> >                 hidden
> >       * Floating toolbar: Remove the triangle to access the options
> >         menu.
> 
> Sounds good to me, thank you!  Since what I have done is half-way there,
> would it be OK for you to let the rest as an Easy Hack?  I mean, I think
> that after my change, it is "good enough" (TM) and I can/will easily do
> the removal of the downwards triangle and center the double-arrow (>>),
> but the rest is slightly more work [not _that_ much, but because the
> same menu is currently used for the context (right-click) menu, and for
> the "more" functionality, the code will need to do a bit more handling
> of these two possibilities].

Sounds (very) good to me - at least it is a chance to implement the
change incrementally. If we get serious complaints, it might be easier
to go back - if required (I don't hope so). Could you please take care
to "conserve" it as an easy hack? Would it be possible to add me as an
potential UX contact for further questions?

...

> > By the way, I noticed that we do not conform to Windows standards - our
> > floating toolbar titles do not react on right-clicks to open the
> > corresponding context menu, see [4].
> > 
> > [4] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511500.aspx#paletteWindows
> 
> Sounds like one more Easy Hack :-)

I think we get too many Easy Hacks - we should start to make
deverloper's lives less simple ;-)))

Cheers,
Christoph