Those are specific positions on a screen in a desktop OS UI. That's HUGELY different from yet-another-webapp, because you only need to learn it ONCE, and then it remains the same always, no matter what app you're using or what page you're viewing.
With web pages and apps, it's up to each designer to decide where and how things are laid out, and everyone has their own opinion, so if 20 designers decide to hide their components, how is the user to find them? The last thing I want to do is play hide-and-seek moving the mouse around a webpage/app randomly in the forlorn hope that maybe one of the gadgets or magic locations will pop up a control that I can use.
Put in a gear icon that I can mouse over. Put SOMETHING there that says "hey! I can be interacted with!" Otherwise I'll just ascribe the interface as designed by someone incompetent and look for an alternative.
Comments
Those are specific positions on a screen in a desktop OS UI. That's HUGELY different from yet-another-webapp, because you only need to learn it ONCE, and then it remains the same always, no matter what app you're using or what page you're viewing.
With web pages and apps, it's up to each designer to decide where and how things are laid out, and everyone has their own opinion, so if 20 designers decide to hide their components, how is the user to find them? The last thing I want to do is play hide-and-seek moving the mouse around a webpage/app randomly in the forlorn hope that maybe one of the gadgets or magic locations will pop up a control that I can use.
Put in a gear icon that I can mouse over. Put SOMETHING there that says "hey! I can be interacted with!" Otherwise I'll just ascribe the interface as designed by someone incompetent and look for an alternative.