Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 14th Sep 2008 12:34 UTC
This is the ninth article in a series on common usability and graphical user interface related terms [part I | part II | part III | part IV | part V | part VI | part VII | part VIII]. On the internet, and especially in forum discussions like we all have here on OSNews, it is almost certain that in any given discussion, someone will most likely bring up usability and GUI related terms - things like spatial memory, widgets, consistency, Fitts' Law, and more. The aim of this series is to explain these terms, learn something about their origins, and finally rate their importance in the field of usability and (graphical) user interface design. In part IX, we are going to talk about the menu.
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Member since:
2008-02-26
Pity that you didn't mention the menu behaviour.
The classic Windows-like behaviour is for menu to expand when a menu item is hovered by a cursor. It lets you access submenus faster but it often makes you lose your menu path when you get into deep submenu and accidentally hover the cursor above some higher level menu. This is annoying as it requires you to select all your menu/submenu/submenu2 path again.
Another type of menu behaviour is the requirement to click on a menu item to access a submenu (available in new KDE Kickoff menu and in Windows Vista). It won't make you lose your menu selection path, but it will require you to click on every submenu you want to dive in.
I guess you could explain this topic in more detail.