Hello,
I wrote a bug report about the menubar section of KDE's HIG today, I
made a suggestion how that section could be improved.
Because I believe that this is a topic that needs discussion, I post the
proposal here as well, thank you! The bug report can be found here:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=238624 it also contains a
mockup.
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The KDE Human Interface Guideline (HIG) declare, that a menubar is
mandatory for every single application, quotes:
"Provide a menubar in every application main window"
"Don't make the menubar 'hideable', users may not easily be able to
make the menubar viewable again"
This has grown to be a problem, since application developers tend to
get away from menubars and as such - violate the KDE HIG.
Applications that in their current state violate this part of the HIG are
for example rekonq, konsole, kget, the systemsettings and palapeli to
name a few.
There are valid reasons to replace the menubar how it looks today
with
something more useable, more visually appealing and less space
wasting.
But first of all let us see, what is good about the menubar:
- provides an easy way to access every functionality of a program
- accessibility features (press alt+*key*)
- menubars are also present in Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, GNOME
etc.
So what is bad about the menubar?
- wastes vertical space, which is a problem on smaller screens and
annoying on
bigger screens
- menubars are flat, thus they are not usable on touchscreen devices
- doesnt look appealing
- uses deprecated labels like "file" (quassel has a "file" entry with the
entries "networks -> join network" and "quit", where is there a file
involved?)
- text only which makes it hard to use for people who have trouble
reading (for
example disabled people), also this makes it harder to find what you
are
looking for since you dont have self explanatory icons
What could be done to improve/replace the menubar?
The menubar should be merged with the right side of the toolbar,
entries should
be reordered and renamed, in general there should be less entries
(for example
there could be an entry "actions" with basic actions such as "save"
"open"
"print" and "find", "help" doesnt need to be an own entry). Menubar
entries
should have icons. It should be configurable in system settings
whether icons,
text or both should be shown, this should also apply to the toolbar.
Problems with that:
- some applications do not have toolbars (I just know one: Konsole)
- needs work, a template needs to be written and applications need
to be
changed
- KDE would be the first one to fully replace the menubar, breaking
same look
and feel as other desktop enviroments
Why this would still be better:
- saves space for applications
- makes it work on touchscreen devices
- would look better
- increased accessibility
- less confusing to find the right function
- more modern look and feel
- would stop violation of the HIG
I hope you see the opportunities that are open for KDE, to be a
pioneer in this
issue.
Please note that this should be considered a draft, it needs further
discussion
and tweaks, maybe a completely different solution will be found in the
end.
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