Hot answers tagged contextual-menu
15
I disagree strongly with the accepted answer here (but I'm currently implementing one, so I'm biased). As for research/support, there's been a number of articles published on this topic, by Don Hopkins in particular. Check this video out, too. Here are some highlights from Don Hopkin's original study on Pie Menus:
Seek time (shorter = faster):
Error rate ...
10
1. Is the standard for both Windows and OSX. You should go with this.
Update: (Note that when clicking at extreme bottom of screen it will automatically display as 4,when at extreme right it will display as 3, and at extreme bottom right it displays as 2.)
This seems to make sense, you right click, and are at the top left position of the list of options. ...
10
I have seen radial menus few times. I have tested a Firefox addon that arranged contextual menu in a circle. Also it was used in some computer games (Temple of Elemental Evil comes to mind when I think about it). It somehow didn't work.
It is much easier to scan a list of options (your eyes move top-down) than options arranged in a circle (your eyes must ...
10
Context menus are an added benefit for advanced users - this is even the case on desktop applications (and even the OS itself). Even fairly experienced users of Windows tend to ignore context menus almost entirely, so I wouldn't worry too much about the fact that a web browser has a "standard" context menu that you would be overriding. If the current user ...
6
Generally I would suggest you not use right click menus, because just like you said: users are not aware of this menu's existence.
Jakob's Law of the Web User Experience states that "users spend most of their time on other websites." This is the biggest reason for you to use another solution
On the other hand, if it's a corporate app or an app where users ...
6
Do you have any 'casual' users? People who will be using the software intermittently (say once every few weeks or months)? Because I'm of the belief that power users can deal with user interface inconsistencies a lot better than casual users, so I'd say it's more acceptable to remove those options if everyone is using it every day.
Now I still don't like ...
6
I believe that by adding icons to all of the menu items would make it hard to scan and hard to navigate.
Why is that? Well icons have meaning, unfortunately the meaning is not universal, people from different backgrounds and cultures would interpret the icons differently so instead of reading the menu and clicking a right menu item. ...
5
Maya’s “hotbox” menu system has apparently been subjected to fairly extensive evaluation, so you can use its characteristics as a starting point for testing of your app. You can read more on the designers’ rationale and lessons learned in developing hot box in:
Kurtenbach G, Fitzmaurice GW, Owen RN,
& Baudel T (1999). The Hotbox: Efficient access ...
5
Is the item something that you can add a tooltip? For instance, on a forgot-password image, I added a tooltip:
<a href="{% url password-reset %}"><img src="/media/bitmaps/qmark.png/"
title="forgot password?" width="50" height="50" /></a>
Which results in
Alternately, if it's not some single object(s), then what about storing a ...
4
I think Radial menus make a lot of sense in touch interfaces. The couple of places I have seen Radial menus in place include the now-Google-acquired Bumptop application
and more recently on the Dolphin browser for the Android. Windows 7 has a pie menu too which makes sense since its going to be used in a lot of touch devices.
4
In most photo apps I know there the tap+hold or longtap event that triggers some sort of contextual menu with further options like export, mail to someone, etc. Look at mobile safari for instance. Tap and hold on a link and an action sheet with some actions appears. This is used widely in apples apps. You can see that in safari on the "+" icon (favorite), in ...
4
The optimal position is #1, the top left corner, for text that reads left to right and top to bottom. This positioning allows for the text to be easily read and for the user to move the mouse and their eyes in the same direction that they normally read.
But when the mouse is positioned close to the edge of the viewport the panel should be displayed so as ...
4
Your logo looks big enough that most users (kids or otherwise) ought to mouse over it if they're confused about how to get to the homepage. I would suggest a mouseover on the logo that displays a home icon or similar text to reinforce that concept.
Kids are quite adept at picking up patterns though so it would be wise to spend an hour or two researching ...
3
I would recommend two actions:
Keep the thumbnails screen clean, minimizing the chrome and buttons. A tap on a thumbnail opens a new screen that contains the photo and an action bar with all the desktop context menu options. You can hide this action bar in a few seconds (or with a user tap) to keep the photo alone. This way you have a safe and visible ...
3
Interestingly, from the Fitts' Law point of view, the optimal one would be
which reduces the mean distance to target to half.
Well, the really optimal would be one where the cursor is already on top of an option, but that's not going to end well.
3
As a user, my instinct would be to regard the tabs as the top-level menu. Being the highest element, it's the first thing I read, and so it's intuitive that it'd be the first 'point of decision'.
You can resolve further confusion by employing three techniques:
Don't let the side menu share any of the tab menu's vertical space.
Don't be tempted to put any ...
3
Refer to iPhone email app: it allows users to manage a lot of mails. Its UI pattern may help.
First you tap "Edit" button, then you tap each photo you like to manage, lastly you tap one of the options located at the bottom of a screen.
Googled images:
This UI solves:
Edit is not a hidden feature (like tap and hold in Safari)
You wont do changes by ...
3
No, users rely on the ability to click outside the menu to cancel it, and to click on the parent menu to cancel opening a submenu. You always need to provide users a consistent and easy-to-recognize way to cancel an action.
Submenus are known to be difficult to use, which is why GUI guidelines discourage their use. For example, MS Windows 7 User Experience ...
3
I just stumbled across your posting while looking for a good screenshot of maya's cursor menu functionality to pair it with this java script tool:
http://arborjs.org/
It is limited to an HTML5 canvas but has big potential for implementing the kind of menu functionality you are looking for.
3
To quote Microsoft: The [context] menu items should apply only to the selected (or clicked upon) object or window region.
The selected records are still selected objects. You should make sure that the context to which the menu applies is clear.
A good example is Firefox context menu that appears when you right click within an iFrame - it shows actions ...
2
It depends on the nature of your web app, and the true answer can only be bore out with proper user testing.
It should be fine if your app is an 'editor tool': If your app is a tool of some kind that has a 'canvas' or 'grid' like a document editor, spreadsheet, or drawing tool, then I suspect you'll find users will naturally expect the right click to work ...
2
You may simply change the mouse pointer icon that represents right-click.
The icon will tell users that they have extra options when cursor changed, so in this case that doesnt matter if user is right handed or not. ("Right-click" is more a concept than a meaning. So both, right-handed and left-handed, users think and act the same way for this concept.)
...
2
The first thing that comes to mind is to change the display of the (default) pointer cursor to something slightly different. Maybe a pointer with a small indicator next to it, like an (R). Although that may not work for left-handed people that have swapped the mouse buttons. But you get the idea. Hope this helps.
2
I think that defaulting to certain Setting based the user's current page is a great idea, and there's nothing wrong with the content sliding in and out, but I would avoid having navigational elements changing location.
If a user knows they want to get to the Privacy settings, the link to that would be in a very different place depending on where they are ...
2
Your example does exist in at least one example I can think of; iTunes (which uses it for Ping):
It's probably worth noting that iTunes isn't generally considered an example of great UI, but at least it gives you a style reference.
I guess it might also depend on some other factors:
How many widgets might be listed in the worst case? If there are very ...
2
The correct answer is "whatever works best for your target audience".
You should perform some discovery testing using the varying approaches you're considering with representative users and a simple task of navigating back to the homepage from within the game. The answer may surprise you, but will be based on some real data versus conjecture as to the ...
2
I must say that I don't really like the sound of skipping the standard menu and totally relying on keybindings/contextual menu. This is however of personal preference and I have no third party evidence to back me up so you may want to take what I say with a pinch of salt.
Personally I would try to add an actual navigation/menu control.
I would guess there ...
2
It will be good to have meaningful controls for either solutions. Nobody likes to read documentation and even if the users learn the meaning but don't use the app everyday they may forget the meaning quickly. It's a bit hard to answer your questions without much context. How many actions and alternatives do you have? How is your system represented to users? ...
2
My suggestion is this: Leave the UI uncluttered omitting the context menu items as a default, but empower your users with the option to add them through a setting. Yes, this breaks (old) convention, but I think it’s about time. I can’t imagine Windows 8 apps nor Office 2013 showing a cluttered UI like the way we saw Word in 2003.
2
Take a look at the Android Design Guide at the Multi-pane Layouts section. I think this covers what you are looking for.
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