Re: OT: Win 7... coming unpinned

"Snit" <usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:C71AFBDF.529F5%usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Well, the wording is different in that the phrase "this program" has been
inserted in the longer one. Otherwise they are the same.

Wording, capitalization and icons are different. Other than that, well,
sure... they are the same. What else is there? We have already discussed
that the menus look different, but I have no problem with that (for reasons
previously discussed).

If you'd read just a bit further, you'd find out "what else is there":

The jump lists have the same background as the same menu, and in the case of
this item anyway, the same highlight. Different border, though.

It's not inconsistent in every possible way. Just, you know, some of them.

[snip]
I may have missed something; the two menus I recall were both shown at the
same time, cascading style. Surely that's the same context.

Not cascading... if they were they should be the same, I would think. One
is a right-click menu on an item in another menu.

Not really cascading, just "cascading style", if you see what I mean. But still: whether it is cascading or not, surely it is all the same context.

By the way, OS X does not
have this and I think, at times, it would be a benefit to advanced users.

It seems like the jump lists act like wee little start panels.

[snip]
Be careful not to confuse "I don't agree with this" with "They had no reason
to do this" or "They didn't think about this."

Having two commands that do the same thing but have different wording,
capitalization and icons is pretty hard to defend.

Nah. I can just say they are for "different contexts". Easy! :D

Everything is tradeoffs. I think you'd be hard-pressed to show any practical
disadvantage to the extra phrase here.

User confusion.

I think you would be hard-pressed to show any user confusion.

[snip]
I don't think we can say that Microsoft didn't think about this.

Is there any sign they did?

Ummm.. errrrr... ah, yeah, but, WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT! BEHIND YOU! QUICK!


What, nothing there? My mistake. Now, what were we talking about?

[snip- Time Machine]
You are not looking at just a folder... you are looking at achieved data...

Like, say, a CD you had burned?

and it is made for a very different use-case than just digging through
general folders.

It's for digging through *backup* folders. That's completely different. Somehow.

If you prefer to look through folders, though, you can do
that, too.

Yeah, there is that.

[snip]
The more specific wording is perhaps less confusing.

Indeed, this may be a justification (or a rationalization) of the wording.
It adds the phrase "this program" and the icon when the icon you got the
menu from is *not* the program to be unpinned, but is rather a taskbar
entry.

Then what program? There is no "this program" if you do not count the task
bar icon as a program.

In your example the program was Internet Explorer. The task bar icon is just a grouping element, a bunch of stuff stapled together.

Hmmm... what happens if you have the icons not
grouped? Same wording?

Yep.

If so, users might think they are unpinning that
window... the lack of focus of the taskbar leads to this type of confusion.

No, because MS was clever enough to make the wording specific: it says "this program" not "this window", you see. You've figured out why the wording change was the right thing to do! Brilliant!

When you right click upon the program's own icon, you do not get the
"this program" clarification, since context menus are supposed to operate
upon the thing clicked anyway.

That's a thin reed to hang a defense upon, I admit. But there's (very
slightly) more substance there than the "context change" argument, I feel.

Context-change indications make sense... though, I have agreed, having just
one program have such a big change makes little sense to me. Having menus
for "special" UI features makes more sense (dock and taskbar menus look
different than other menus... I have no problem with that).

The jump-lists are about as special as the start panel, really. Is that start panel an acceptable inconsistency in your view?

.

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