[Sugar-devel] ribbon, right-click, button bars (was: RFC: Kill the delayed menus for good)

[Albert Cahalan]

Eben Eliason writes:

> palettes, we aimed to reduce accidental invocation
> of them without entirely eliminating discovery by increasing the
> delay.
...
> I'm more worried about immediately revealing of all secondary
> actions, which pull attention from the more efficient manner in
> which basic actions can be performed - namely, clicking on the
> big icons.
>
> If we can do this in a manner which doesn't distract from the
> primary interaction methods and encourage inefficient paths
> through the UI, that would be great.

I believe this was first solved by Kid Pix, a few decades ago.
One button bar swaps out another button bar.

Microsoft's ribbon looks like the same thing, though I've never
used it so I can't say for sure.

Tux Paint certainly uses this model. In that case, it works fine
for kids **way** below sugar's target age. (smart 2-year-old or
regular 4-year-old for sure, possibly younger)

> Another possibility would be to educate children about right click
> somehow.

On the one hand, I think it's really important to do this. Besides
the human-compatibility issue and the extra expressive power, I think
using a second button will help to develop the mind a bit. (you're not
just grabbing or poking when you click; you're performing an action
that could be determined by which button you click)

On the other hand, I think both buttons should be the left button
by default. Kids have trouble hitting the correct button. Button
mistakes should not be something kids face from the moment go.

> Perhaps, as suggested by Wade, we could allude to the availability
> of more information immediately on hover, and perhaps even try making
> the right button the only means of invoking the secondary actions.
> This does work today, but the lack of discoverability is a definite
> problem.

It's no less discoverable than the left button. Right-click menus
need to work two ways though:

a. Press and hold down right button, move, release
b. Click (press and release) right button, move, click either button