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Is the Windows start menu dead?

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nontroppo:
Yikes, I just watched the Vista start menu demo. Lots of pseudo-cognitive psychology put me off this app for life...

Is the start menu dead? For me it mostly died in Windows 98 when I started using Litestep. Litestep of course required lots of tweaking, so the gains in productivity over the clumsy start menu were offset by writing config files to hone your interface ;) Though I oscillated between explorer and alternative shells for app launching (and also task management where the start bar sucks) I was never quite satisfied. Until I found FARR. This was a Tarantino moment for the start menu, a complete gruesome yet swift death. As a mouse/keyboard flip-flopper I still can't get anything close to the power of find-as-you-type launchers mouse-wise.

I do like the concept of radial menus however; sapiens is a mac launcher that uses them (quicksilver also can use radial menus for key/mouse hybrid interface):

http://www.donelleschi.com/sapiens/design.php
http://www.donelleschi.com/sapiens/

I don't know if there are app launchers in windows that use radial menus for launching (mozilla had a radial menus extension IIRC), but they offer several ergonomic benefits over the more common linear menus... Maybe a future Windows start menu will be round?  8)

Darwin:
Yikes is an understatement! I just watched the video demo as well and don't "get" the emphasis on visual memory. Version one DID emphasize positioning - it was broken up into "grids" and featured large icons. Since version two, though, the emphasis, to my mind, has been to work with the existing start menu "ethos" and enhance it. Using VSM - just fired it up and updated for the first time since the late summer - I find the icons and the text far too small for "visual memory" to be enhanced and visually scan the menu for programmes and other items by name. Anyway, funny how enthusiastic one can be for something and how that enthusiasm can wear off. I still think VSM is a fine start menu replacement and that it would benefit some users. For me, I just don't rely on the start menu enough to make it worth my while.

nontroppo:
Yeah, the items in the menu look small and uniform, not so identifiable and not really structured (visuo-spatial memory could be enhanced by category regions, a sort of way-point navigation).

One idea I love from sapiens is contextuality. What I may be looking for in the menu  may depend on what I've just been doing. So if I've just downloaded an image I may want to edit it. Image editors should be emphasised. etc. There are lots of cool innovations to make in this field...

Darwin:
(visuo-spatial memory could be enhanced by category regions, a sort of way-point navigation)
-nontroppo (February 08, 2008, 05:43 PM)
--- End quote ---

This is exactly what version one did... I honestly thought that version two signalled a change in direction from this, though. I like the contextual idea that you mention. Done correctly this would be a real boon (done haphazardly it is likely that this would drive me to drink!).

Lashiec:
Whoo, seems someone drank the kool-aid. That demo is a bit over the top for what it's nothing more than a expanded XP Start menu. It's better than the default in Vista, but I think Microsoft also provided an option to use the old Start menu without forking $20 for "visual memory".

And if you want to activate your visual memory even more, use Rocket Launcher. Free, and with big icons :)

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