Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!ncar!gatech!uflorida!codas!cpsc6a!atl2!akgua!mtunx!whuts!homxb!homxc!lewisd
From: lewisd@homxc.UUCP (David Lewis)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: pie menus
Message-ID: <1727@homxc.UUCP>
Date: 28 Mar 88 20:07:36 GMT
References: <5104@sigi.Colorado.EDU>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Red Hill Site, NJ
Lines: 45
Summary: circular menus

In article <5104@sigi.Colorado.EDU>, andreas@sigi.Colorado.EDU (Andreas C. Lemke) writes:
> I've heard of a (new) kind of menus in which items are arranged like a
> pie chart.  The menu pops up with the mouse cursor in the center so
> that each item can be reached by moving the mouse in the corresponding
> direction.  This supposedly improves performance for skilled users who
> know which item is where.  Accessing an item in a regular vertical
> list menu requires more feedback from the eye to tell whether the
> correct item has been reached.
> My idea is that they look something like this:
>        -----------------
>        |    \item1/    |
>        |     \   /     |
>        |item6 \ / item2|
>        |-------*-------|
>        |item5 / \ item3|
>        |     /   \     |
>        |    /item4\    |
>        -----------------
> Do pie menus exist?  On which system?  How are labels arranged?  Are
> they really better than linear menus?  Is it more difficult (slower) for a
> *novice* to find an item in such a circular arrangement?
> ... andreas ..:-).
I've been thinking of writing one of these circular menus for X11R2 since
seeing a taped demonstration of one shown by Ben Schneiderman (of
"Designing the User Interface" fame) on some unspecified system; I think
it was an Apple II or Atari micro.  I was planning to have the outside
circular.  There is a small dead spot in the center.  Note that this
arrangement allows for two-item selection; for example, which pie
slice you are in could select color, and how far out from the center
you are in could select intensity; or the wedge selects the font and the
distance selects the type size.
 Andreas, they exist, but I don't know of any commercial implementation.
 Problems that I am running into: 1) How to fit the label into the box.
2) How to deal with a menu containing a large number of items.
 Quite coincidentally, my group today interviewed a PhD in Human Factors,
and in discussion of user interaction styles this question came up.
She said that this sort of menu is useful only for certain situations:
where the labels are VERY short; where the labels are clearly attached
to something (example: a,b,c,d,e for a multiple-choice answer); or
for graphic use in choosing color or something similar. They'd
also be useful in a menu with icons. They're also  useful in situations
in which the menu is not ordered (as long as it fits the other requirements);
otherwise, the eye has trouble deciding which pie wedge to scan first.
-- 
David B. Lewis    {ihnp4,allegra,ulysses,rutgers!mtune}!homxc!lewisd
"New Jersey -- Landfill of Enchantment"