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From: rmh@apple.com (Rick Holzgrafe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Menu items that change
Message-ID: <9000@goofy.Apple.COM>
Date: 5 Jul 90 22:15:11 GMT
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 37
References:<40218215MES@MSU> <42382@apple.Apple.COM> <42383@apple.Apple.COM> <1990Jun27.180718.3155@portia.Stanford.EDU> <1990Jul3.143206.940@acc.stolaf.edu> <886@mdavcr.UUCP> <23043@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>

In article <23043@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> kurash@carr.dartmouth.edu (Mark 
Valence) writes:
> What are your reasons for not liking changing menus?

Menus, like much of the Mac interface, should let the user use "muscle 
memory". This means that a function should always appear in the same 
place. (When was the last time you had to either think about, or look for, 
the "Open" command in any application?)

Another tenet of the User Interface Thought Police: don't startle the 
user. Capriciously changing menu items are surprising and confusing.

On the other hand, these are not reasons to make *all* menu items 
constant. You just have to avoid moving things around too much, or 
replacing items with surprisingly different items. I see nothing wrong 
with changing the text of a menu item to reflect a sensible option or 
variant, and neither do the Thought Police. The Finder "Clean Up" command 
is a good example.

>  (It's not fair to say they just feel wrong :)

Yes it is! This has been the hardest lesson for me to learn at Apple. No 
matter how logical or sensible I think an interface is, if too many users 
"just don't like it" then the users are right and I'm wrong. "It feels 
wrong" is another way to say "it's not intuitive to me".

Disclaimer: you can always find a few people to complain about anything. 
If you looked hard enough, you could probably find someone who doesn't 
like chocolate ice cream. Just beware when *lots* of folks are 
complaining. :-)

==========================================================================
Rick Holzgrafe              |    {sun,voder,nsc,mtxinu,dual}!apple!rmh
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