are drawers on the way out?
2 Jun 2006 - 11:12am
1 reply
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mtumi
2004
Hello distinguished colleagues -
Playing with different ways to display some contextual information
(user profiles), and have been looking into drawers as one of several
options (extended tooltips a la yahoo messenger are another under
consideration).
After poking around a bit, I've been realizing that Apple seems to be
moving away from them despite having originated (or at least
popularized) drawers as a UI element. Applications that used to use
drawers (like Mail) use them no longer...
Anyone have the skinny on these skinny window sidekicks? Has
research uncovered problems with them?
Thanks -
Michael
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Comments
>From: Michael Tuminello <mt at motiontek.com>
>
>After poking around a bit, I've been realizing that Apple seems to be
>moving away from them despite having originated (or at least
>popularized) drawers as a UI element. Applications that used to use
>drawers (like Mail) use them no longer...
>
>Anyone have the skinny on these skinny window sidekicks? Has
>research uncovered problems with them?
The immediate obvious issue with them, to me, takes us back to the maximized window issue of a week or two ago. What do you do when the user opens a drawer while the window is maximized? Neither reducing the current window size nor opening the drawer off-screen seems to be the right thing to do. (Some Apple apps do the latter, which is the least useful of the two options.)
-- Jim Drew
Seattle, WA