OSNews

For discoverability, why not combine this with the right-click-wheel I had suggested many years ago when writing about OS interface paradigms? You right-click anywhere in an app (or on the desktop which is an app in some OSes) and you get a wheel with concentric rings. The innermost ring, closest to the cursor, contains the most used commands like save/open/print etc. The next ring has less common commands, and the third ring would exist in complicated programs like photo editors and would invoke filters and such that are unique to that program.

There are two distinct advantages to the wheel concept: One, you don't have to worry about where the menu is, as it is always where the cursor is. Two, you can have a very complex menu system that is still presented in a simple and familiar fashion across apps.

Of course, I didn't come up with this design on my own; I was inspired in part by a fictional interface from a 1990s anime. I expanded on it and made some mockups using the power of Stardock customization apps. It worked pretty well for me, but due to my lack of coding and subsequent dependence on Stardock (and therefore Windows), I walked away from it.

I'd love to give it another shot one day though!