Why are the zoom/minimize/close-or-sometimes-quit button so small and difficult-to-acquire targets? I'm not complaining, mind you, I'm just wondering what the rational is for that.
Also, why does the dock not stretch across the bottom? Apple certainly knows about Fitt's law - what's the reason for ignoring it?
What would the purpose of stretching the dock across the bottom be? If you have few icons, they'd only be really spread out. Not necessarily beneficial.
What they do right on the dock and menus is extend the hit area all the way to the edges of the screen and adjacent items. You can drag your cursor all the way to the bottom of the screen and still hit the icon in the doc even though it's ~20px above. Likewise the apple and spotlight menus can be activated by clicking the the very corners. Much easier to hit because they have "infinite" height.
"Edges and corners of the computer display (e.g., Start button in Microsoft Windows and the menus and Dock of Mac OS X) are particularly easy to acquire because the pointer remains at the screen edge regardless of how much further the mouse is moved, thus can be considered as having infinite width.
"Similarly, top-of-screen menus (e.g., Mac OS) are easier to acquire than top-of-window menus (e.g., Windows OS)."
What would the purpose of stretching the dock across the bottom be? If you have few icons, they'd only be really spread out. Not necessarily beneficial.
The icons don't need to be evenly spaced. Windows gets this part right. When you don't stretch it out all the way then the position of the elements keep changing as apps get added to the dock. So, for example, dropping something into the trash or opening a new finder window (or any other app you have permanently in the dock) can't be done by muscle memory. You need to locate it with the mouse each time.
What would you do with the extra space on the 2 sides of the dock anyway? You can't really populate them with windows since the dock will, in all likelihood be covering part of the window.
I agree with the menus at the top. That's the classic example of Fitt's law at work.
You make an interesting point about muscle memory. My dock has enough icons that it stretches across the whole screen maybe that's why I've never noticed this as an issue.
Can you imagine a left-aligned dock? Or a dock in two parts - pinned apps and open apps/minimized windows? I think it'd look horrible and the benefits would be minimal. They may have erred on the side of aesthetics and decided the usability tradeoff was minimal.
I was partial the the NeXT dock starting at the top right and going down, but I concede that in the merge with Mac OS that area is used for other stuff.
RE the dock: that's an awful lot of screen estate to waste - and how do you do it? make things space out wide when you only have a few items in the dock? (which increases the need for more precise mousing).
remember that the dock can go the full width; you just have to fill it with crap. :)
RE the dock: that's an awful lot of screen estate to waste - and how do you do it? make things space out wide when you only have a few items in the dock? (which increases the need for more precise mousing).
The screen space at the sides of the dock are already wasted aren't they? Do you keep anything important there (without it getting partially covered by the dock itself)?
The items don't need to be evenly spaced out. They can just be packed in from left to right.
remember that the dock can go the full width; you just have to fill it with crap. :)
You can do some plist magic to make the dock flush to the left or right but can't make it take up the full width, alas.
The dock is a waste of screen space full-stop. Almost any app can be launched more quickly with a Cmd+Space, 2-3 chars + Enter if you're already at the keyboard. I'd have it removed altogether if accessing minimized apps in other ways wasn't so sucky.
> Why are the zoom/minimize/close-or-sometimes-quit button so small and difficult-to-acquire targets? I'm not complaining, mind you, I'm just wondering what the rational is for that.
My guess is because these are rarely ever used. I just use expose instead of minimizing windows, and I typically kill an app before I consider closing its window.
One advantage (for me at least) is that this way the corners have been left empty and I can use them as hot spots for some other functionality (such as Expose').
Not sure if that's the reason (more probably just fashion sense) but I like it.
Also, why does the dock not stretch across the bottom? Apple certainly knows about Fitt's law - what's the reason for ignoring it?