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> Steve Lemay insisted the drawer live on the right side of the window [1]. This was inexplicable to me. Makes some sense to me if, as I suspect, people tend t
by Someone 7mo ago
> Steve Lemay insisted the drawer live on the right side of the window [1]. This was inexplicable to me.
Makes some sense to me if, as I suspect, people tend to place their windows aligned to the left of the screen. If that’s the case, opening the drawer to the left of its container (the window) would require not sliding the drawer out, but sliding the window to the right to make room for the drawer.
I think that that’s a reason the drawer analogy doesn’t really make sense. Another is that the question “what do you store in a drawer?” certainly isn’t “page thumbnails and table of contents”. “Rarely used tools” or “spare paper” are better answers.
- JKCalhoun 7mo ago"…but sliding the window to the right to make room for the drawer." You're right about that. (You should be a designer, ha ha.) I think the "solution" was that the drawer was open by default when a new document opened. Therefore the window was placed in a way that already allowed for the drawer width.
- coldtea 7mo agoWouldn't help if the user closes the drawer and moves it to the left - which users used to having apps to the left (and to a left to right reading culture) would. The main problem I see is the mouse pointer has reason to be on the proximity of the left side: the Apple menu is there, the most important dock elements (on a bottom dock) are there - or the whole dock for a left-placed dock), the menubar File, Edit, etc, and the most common icons for icon bar operations are there. And if 'content is king', navigating the content (TOC, search, thumbnail) should also be king, not just the current viewing page.
- JKCalhoun 7mo agoYeah, probably ultimately why the drawer disappeared in favor of the resizable split-view.