338406 - improve hints to navigation and window control icons...

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Minimo Graveyard :: Minimo Front-End, defect)

Description

[chris hofmann]

one of the pieces of usability feedback I'm seeing is that minimo users not familar with the wince control mechanisms are not as likely to click on the naviation and window control icons or buttons to see what is under them.

The question in one minimo usability session was

 "how do I go back?"

maybe new icons would help.

since the control button represent a number of functions it may be hard to come up with something more useful than we currently have.

one idea would be to make an icon around the most frequently used item out of each list..  for instance the "back" action or "go" action might be a good hint for the current things on the navigation menu which looks like:


bookmarks
bookmark this page
------------------
home
back  <----------------------------------------
forward
reload
go
pan

So an icon that looks like "<-" or ">Go" might get users clicking to expose the full menu and learn about the supported actions.

For the window control actions this one might be tougher.  maybe at "?" icon representing the "find" action could be the hint that might tempt users to click and discover what is under this icon. 

New tab
Browser tabs >
Full Screen
Arrow Key Scrolling
Desktop Layout
View as Google Mobile
Text Size +
Text Size -
Prefernces
Find
Toggle Homebar

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thoughts?

Comment 1

[chris hofmann]

"Window Control" and "Navigation Control" are the organizing pricipals around these two menus so icons that show something that represents these things (a window or something like a compass) might also be an idea.

Comment 2

[chris hofmann]

maybe this for navigation control button

   < >

to show [forward] [back], or if we could fit it

   < Go >

Comment 3

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

Minimo .2 is basically where we are at.  If we have specific changes we want to make to the ui, lets follow up in a new bug or forum discussion.  Marking fixed.