I'm working a UI for a tablet in landscape mode. The primary display will be a 'graph style' (nodes and edges) that takes up the middle of the view.
When I'm looking at the prototypes I'm a bit conflicted as to where to put the 'actions' (EG add node, add edge, remove node, etc). My initial reaction was a typical menu across the top but this seems wrong. A 'left->right' notion seems more intuitive but when I draw it out it looks rather non-standard.
Example:
- if a node is selected then the right edge will have buttons that effect that node: remove, link, properties
- if no node is selected or for items that impact the whole display (EG add node) then the menu items will be on the left side
One problem is that having buttons on both sides takes up too much real estate. Have toyed with 'sliding menus' but having them on both sides is very noisy.
Does this paradigm make any sense? Suggestions on what would make more sense?
NOTE: I brought this up in a previous question. I'm a bit reluctant to do more drawing on the arbor canvas as it's pretty busy already. Not 100% set on this though.