Comments on: Circular Menus and Usability http://techknack.net/circular-menus-and-usability/ The rantings of a techie Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:49:11 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: acroyear70 http://techknack.net/circular-menus-and-usability/comment-page-1/#comment-109 acroyear70 Sat, 10 May 2008 12:59:00 +0000 http://blog.techknack.net/circular-menus-and-usability/#comment-109 The term used back in the 90s was "pie menus" because it divided the choices up into a pie. The idea was to use multiple-directions to help muscle memory and also avoid the user having to move the mouse in the most uncomfortable direction (down and out) so often.<br/><br/>The one drawback was that if the menu changed over time, the muscle memory was useless and they'd still go right back to having to read the choices - if the number of menu options went from say, 4 to 5, a lot of mistakes would be made early on that might have bad consequences. The term used back in the 90s was “pie menus” because it divided the choices up into a pie. The idea was to use multiple-directions to help muscle memory and also avoid the user having to move the mouse in the most uncomfortable direction (down and out) so often.

The one drawback was that if the menu changed over time, the muscle memory was useless and they’d still go right back to having to read the choices – if the number of menu options went from say, 4 to 5, a lot of mistakes would be made early on that might have bad consequences.

]]> By: Anonymous http://techknack.net/circular-menus-and-usability/comment-page-1/#comment-108 Anonymous Fri, 09 May 2008 20:09:00 +0000 http://blog.techknack.net/circular-menus-and-usability/#comment-108 There used to be a plugin for firefox that did this called radial context. It hasn't been updated much for last couple of years. http://www.radialthinking.de/radialcontext/ There used to be a plugin for firefox that did this called radial context. It hasn’t been updated much for last couple of years. http://www.radialthinking.de/radialcontext/

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