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Start Menu: Better Structure

By Gutza in Technology
Tue Feb 07, 2012 at 10:11:27 AM EST
Tags: Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix, OS, usability, ergonomy (all tags)

A Start Menu by any other name would be used just as much -- and optimized just as little: it gets cluttered within days, and unusable within weeks. And the Search function only gets you so far. I propose a universal, intuitive structure for the Start Menu (or similar) that should alleviate all related problems.

I'd like to propose a default, cross-OS Start Menu structure that I've been refining over the past 10+ years, across some three social statuses (single, married, married+kids), and during several significant career+hobby changes (creative/artistic, programming/engineering, management, logistics, hobby/hacking/checking out crap). To the best of my knowledge, this is the first ever stab at a universal app breakdown. So let's make history!

During all of these setup combos, I found I was able to group all of my applications in only a few folders in the Start Menu, instead of dumping them into the one Start Menu bucket. And -- this is the important bit -- once I placed them in the right category, I was able to locate them intuitively even after forgetting what their name was (which happened more often than I'd like to remember).

My recipe is made of two parts: a few rules and a few categories. So, without further ado, here's the beef:

THE RULES
If you accept my Start Menu gospel, you must abide by these rules:

  1. No app left behind: all programs must end up in one of the categories below. As soon as you allow more than a couple of apps outside the fold, you invite chaos. Don't.
  2. Everything alphabetical: depending on your OS, alphabetical ordering might be default or not. For my recipe to work properly, alphabetical order is a must -- make it so, ensign!
  3. Categorize by purpose, not by means: whenever you have to decide the category for an app, choose to categorize by purpose, not by means. Examples will follow in the next section.

THE STRUCTURE
The Start Menu folders: yes, everything must fall into one of these.

Accessories
Everything generic. Notepad and similar, office tools (MS Office, Open Office, Libre Office) and any other generic tool that doesn't serve any specific purpose, as defined below.
Dev
Development tools. Whatever it is you're creating -- sound, music, software, whatever -- it all goes in here.
Games
Apps you use in your spare time as games. Yes, it's a convoluted and redundant definition. But it's one that everybody gets -- even game developers.
Media
Multimedia-related apps. Movie players, photo viewers, iTunes and the like. Everything that allows you to acquire and consume multimedia content.
Net
Internet/network specific stuff. This is where rule #3 above shines. Most apps today are Internet-enabled, which apparently makes categorization difficult. Not so. Since we're grouping applications by purpose -- not by means -- it should be obvious this category only contains web navigators (IE, Firefox, Chrome etc), and other network communication apps (Skype, putty. VNC, SCP etc).
Startup
OS-dependent category. This is an artificial category: apps that start when the computer powers up. I'd love it if I was able to shelf these properly, but that's impossible -- so here it is, a separate category based on a separate criteria.
Storage
Everything storage: you might think one could be undecided between filing an application in Storage or in Media. You'd be wrong. Media is about multimedia -- stuff that you experience as a human being (e.g. photos, movies, sounds). Storage is about storing/saving/backing up raw data -- stuff that's relevant to computers.
System
Everything OS: this is where you should file stuff that's directly related to your hardware and operating system. Applications that monitor the well-being of your hard disks, the printer drivers, your anti-virus software, firewall, backup solution -- these are all system. Of course most of those are network-enabled; many also need access to your storage -- but their purpose is related to your system, so that's where they should live.

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Start Menu: Better Structure | 36 comments (31 topical, 5 editorial, 0 hidden)
On OS X (none / 1) (#1)
by MichaelCrotchford on Sat Feb 04, 2012 at 09:38:33 PM EST

I launch everything from the dock or (more often) from a spotlight search -- you just can't beat command-space-type-a-few-letters-hit-return.

On windows, my task bar is two rows tall with the top row being quick-launch icons (8 or so, including minimize windows and a link to my documents). When I have to search through the start menu, I tend to freeze up a bit, though being alphabetized would help.

While 'checking out crap' (none / 0) (#7)
by Marvin Suggs on Sun Feb 05, 2012 at 07:15:14 PM EST

Is something many kurons do, literally leaning into the bowl, it doesn't really fit with the tone of your 'article' and should be changed.

Also, while I do not scorn you for being a nullo, nullo, the start menu is dead. That was Jobsys last little gift to us before kicking off.
<>|<>
   .0. gimme a bitcoin: 1M9vApgDo5Dw45Awfem75mrVtMJvaMKpjy

LOL Been dealing with this since forever (3.00 / 3) (#8)
by tdillo on Sun Feb 05, 2012 at 09:44:50 PM EST

Many problems.

One, you're going to have some company X that KNOWS that their app is THE BEST GOD DAMN APP and it MUST be right there ON TOP and on the desktop and in the quick launch and in the notification area and in the toolbar of each and every window.

Another, some applications are going to be like is this cake or pie? Is it a dessert or a snack? I mean you got a movie player that allows editing so is it a Media or a Dev? Who decides?

Then you have the master debugger uber programmer that thinks your whole idea is braindead and he has a BETTER WAY so he makes his own category(s). Hell maybe he's like screw your Start Menu, I got a 3D mother fucking DOCK. Or I think all the apps should be launched from a swirly in the middle of the screen. Or the dude that decides, 'Menus? We don' need no stinkin menus!' and launches his shit from some mouse gestures.

So you're ALWAYS going to end up having to put shit where YOU want it and HOPE and PRAY that the next time you update that shit it doesn't put an icon or launcher right back where you fucking deleted for the umpteenth time. (You know who I'm talking about).

Might as well nail jelly to a tree.

I may not agree with what you say but I'll defend to the death your right to go fuck yourself.

The stories and information posted here are artistic works of fiction and falsehood.
Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact.

I forgot to add (3.00 / 4) (#9)
by tdillo on Sun Feb 05, 2012 at 10:05:34 PM EST

a really neat and efficient way is where you have a prompt like:

$

and you type the name of the app you want followed by any arguments, options, switches, etc. that you might need. You could string these together using operators and make it really flexible with some kind of regular expression support.

For operations that you perform regularly you could save them in some kind of file that you could name and execute just like a regular installed app.

In which case you really don't have to worry about sorting your sock drawer, uh I mean Start Menu. You just do what ever it is you want to do and stop sweating all the small stuff.

I may not agree with what you say but I'll defend to the death your right to go fuck yourself.

The stories and information posted here are artistic works of fiction and falsehood.
Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact.

+1 not about Crawford # (3.00 / 2) (#10)
by king of fools on Sun Feb 05, 2012 at 11:10:48 PM EST


----------------

fade out again
you are completely wrong (2.50 / 2) (#11)
by Zombie Schrodingers Cat on Mon Feb 06, 2012 at 01:54:40 AM EST

that is like the default configuration on almost every linux distro that is gnome based. And we all know that the user interface on linux sucks.

Therefore I propose a linux applications menu that contains a folder for each application and under each folder there is one launcher. Since the windows UI > Linux UI, this must be the better way. Or we can have a combined launcher bar and taskbar which does neither job very well. But hey, that's what apple does so it must be superior. Oh right, that's the unity interface that everyone hates.

you're retarded (3.00 / 3) (#14)
by I Did It All For The Horse Cock on Mon Feb 06, 2012 at 08:59:14 AM EST




\\\
  \ \        ^.^._______  This comment brought to you by the penis-nosed fox!
    \\______/_________|_)
    / /    \ \
    \_\_    \ \
out of context problem (3.00 / 2) (#15)
by mrbastard on Mon Feb 06, 2012 at 03:14:43 PM EST

Start menu is being replaced in windows 8 with a 'start screen' full of big colourful shapes to paw at.

Mac, Windows 8, Intel and Steam app stores are here or coming soon. Those fuckers will decide how apps are categorised, not you or me.

Because although they haven't quite realised it yet, this is part of their user experience now - part of guiding the user through the product into the magical marketing money funnel.

If (and I'm not saying this will happen, but the money appears to think so) software sales end up become essentially app-store controlled shareware - download free 'express' edition, pay for extra features as you need them - then having eyeballs on your app (and it's splash screen and infovertisement tutorials) really counts.

Will companies pay a little to bump up their ranking in the start menu? "User X has 4 free music players installed - how can we increase the odds that ours is the one he pays for?"

So I predict that you ain't going to get a choice about what goes where in your start menu for much longer.

"ohmygod I have a boyfriend" - Wen Jian

Not about MDC, -1 $ (2.75 / 4) (#18)
by modus on Mon Feb 06, 2012 at 04:38:11 PM EST



Organizing the shitter (3.00 / 6) (#19)
by Blarney on Mon Feb 06, 2012 at 08:23:34 PM EST

Sometimes I like to stand at a busy public bathroom and assist the patrons by organizing them into a line in a prioritized manner. "Are you going to urinate, sir?", I will ask, "or are you needing to take a poo? Do you plan to wash your hands afterwards, and will you require any lengthy drying period?" Sometimes they tell me it's none of my business, but you know, if they just listen it all works out much faster and more conveniently for all concerned!

The problem is that things have multiple... (none / 1) (#20)
by claes on Tue Feb 07, 2012 at 11:08:20 AM EST

attributes.  Sometimes you want them organized the way you've suggested, but sometimes you want them organized a different way.  We finally started organizing things in our system in multiple hierarchies.  That gives us the most flexibility. But this is for our network management system.  It has permissions, and things
are spread out geographically, so we do need to
say "all night-admins can manage cameras in buildings 2,3 and 4" which this system lets us do.
The downside is nobody understands the permissions and roles system so nobody uses it.

Right now for starting apps the most used ones are desktop icons (which is kind of dumb since they're usually covered up).  But I tend to start seamonkey, the ide, a couple of xterms and that's it.  Incoming email attachments get sent to openoffice.  To be honest I haven't changed the default start menu in a while.

Anyhow, thanks for contributing.

win 98 start menu was better than win 7 start menu (none / 1) (#22)
by nateo on Tue Feb 07, 2012 at 12:33:30 PM EST

whatever dickhead vendors can do to assure their software is in your face and easy to click on, regardless of how important it is, they'll do it.  

iirc there was a time when the windows start menu was fairly new where installers didn't behave so much like that, and then if you spent some time organizing your start menu you actually had a fairly useful product launcher.

now i just use quick launch for 99% of things.

--
"I'm so gonna travel the world, photographing my dick at every location."
  - Vampire Zombie Abu Musab al Zarqawi

I have gravitated toward a Dock style launcher (none / 0) (#23)
by tdillo on Tue Feb 07, 2012 at 02:13:30 PM EST

on all the platforms that I use. I didn't think I would like the search thing but in practice I put my most used stuff on the dock and then do the search bit for lesser used stuff and it turns out to be pretty efficient.

I may not agree with what you say but I'll defend to the death your right to go fuck yourself.

The stories and information posted here are artistic works of fiction and falsehood.
Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact.

another addition to the (none / 1) (#25)
by Marvin Suggs on Tue Feb 07, 2012 at 05:34:51 PM EST

"I can't believe it made FP files".

Did the thresh-hold get lowered again?
<>|<>
   .0. gimme a bitcoin: 1M9vApgDo5Dw45Awfem75mrVtMJvaMKpjy

"Dev" (none / 0) (#29)
by nate s on Wed Feb 08, 2012 at 11:28:40 AM EST

...is a weird word for somebody who is editing videos or producing music.  Only programmers think of "productivity" as "development."

Defrag and chkdsk schedule (none / 0) (#30)
by basj on Wed Feb 08, 2012 at 05:49:19 PM EST

Thanks! Those are some great ideas! Also, I've been looking for a good defrag and chkdsk schedule for a while now. Any tips?
--
Complete the Three Year Plan in five years!
... menus are sooo last millenium (none / 0) (#36)
by redelm on Mon Feb 13, 2012 at 08:32:04 AM EST

"start Button" ??? whazzat? Perhaps it escaped the OPs notice the currently most-used computers run Android or iOS which have home screens and icons the users organize however they wish. Of course this may be hostile to other users, but that is part of the idea: personal machinery not tech-support wetdreams.

Menus have so many things wrong with them, but binning into 8 fixed categories is even worse -- I have and need access to 3400+ pgms. Even if they were evenly distributed, that would be 425+ in each category. Not workable in a menuing system, but trivial for CLI.

Not too bad (none / 0) (#37)
by ChemicalCastrator on Thu Feb 16, 2012 at 08:12:49 PM EST

This actually makes the Start button usable.  The windows key now has a function for me now.  However, shit keeps getting replaced.  Not a huge deal but annoying.  

Start Menu: Better Structure | 36 comments (31 topical, 5 editorial, 0 hidden)
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