Removing a feature to do it right

2010 January 07
tags: WindowFlow
by Benedict Lowndes

With the latest release of WindowFlow I had a bit of a dilemma: I'd previously added a feature which allowed you to remove WindowFlow from the Dock and hide it's menu bar; this is actually a pretty common feature for this kind of app and turning it on makes WindowFlow feel like it's much more integrated into the O.S. But the problem is that with the menu bar hidden there's no easy way to quit the app, access help or any of the other things that are listed in the menu.

Google's Quick Search Box Menu

The normal solution to this is to make these menu items accessible from somewhere else within the application, here you can see Google's Quick Search Box, clicking on the arrow opens up the menu where I can access preferences and quit the app. Google have compromised here though: there's no 'Send Feedback' option which can otherwise be accessed via the menu bar. 

WindowFlow's Context Menu

With WindowFlow I really didn't want to ruin the clean layout by adding an arrow or toolbox icon. There is a menu which the user can access by right clicking on a window name, but that menu is context sensitive and is intended for the user to indicate that WindowFlow should ignore a window or application, cluttering this up with quit, help and feedback items didn't seem obvious or right.

So I've removed the feature: the option to hide WindowFlow's dock icon and menu bar is no longer present. I'll re-add it when I've got an appropriate solution.

The other negative side effect of this is that you are now stuck with the icon, at least until the new design is finalised, which is a current work in progress.