🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <239@acornrc.UUCP> bob@acornrc.UUCP (Bob Weissman) writes:
>
>    As a user interface designer, I would be very interested to find out
>    exactly what made the hierarchical menus unusable.
>  Bob Weissman

The problem with hierarchical menus is not the fact of their hierarchy per
se, but the way which they are frequently implemented.  The effort of the
user is directed to executing a single operation.  If the thread of that
hierarchy is lost or if the user is forced into performing a series of
input events in order to initiate that operation, the user can become
confused or frustrated or both.  A system which:

    o  shows the user where in the hierarchy they are

    o  avoids forcing the user to do more than one action to navigate the
	menu (typically moving the cursor around)

    o  is responsive enough so that the user doesn't have to wait for
	the system to change submenu context (i.e. updating the screen to
	show the user where they are)

then it is likely that the menu hierarchy will succeed.  If any of these
elements are missing, then the interface will be less successful.  Note that
as the menu hierarchy becomes deeper, the mechanisms for displaying and
navigating the menu become more difficult, because more steps are necessary
to get from one arbitrary leaf to another of the menu.
-- 
Robert Reed, Tektronix CAE Systems Division, bobr@zeus.TEK