The Essential Guide to User Interface Design: An Introduction to GUI Design Principles and Techniques, 3rd Edition

Additional Examples for Step 4

Example 2

An improperly organized menu bar and pull-down.

Menu 2.1

In this poor menu bar, all alternatives are presented creating a very crowded series of choices in a difficult-to-scan horizontal array. No groupings are provided and an alphabetic order causes intermixing of what appear to be different functions. While menu breadth is preferred to excessive menu depth, too many choices are presented here.

Menu 2.1

Menus 2.2 and 2.3

This is a better, but still poor, menu bar — while File, Function, and Help are now presented separately, the cascading Function menu requires an excessive number of steps to complete selection. Note the number of levels needed to access the Address or Telephone book. Excessive levels of depth are difficult to scan and lead to one's getting lost. Some have referred to this problem as cascade confusion.

Menu 2.2

Menu 2.3

Menus 2.4, 2.5, and 2.6

Here is a much more reasonable solution — Application and Tool menu bar items are created and all alternatives now exist on one pull-down menu. The number of steps necessary to reach any alternative is minimized and easier scanning of all items is permitted.

Menu 2.4

Menu 2.5

Menu ...