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From: don@brillig.umd.edu (Don Hopkins)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc,comp.sys.next,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.amiga,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: What are menus?
Keywords: menu metaphors, pull down menus, pie menus
Message-ID: <15452@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 13 Jan 89 06:58:11 GMT
References: <3234@sugar.uu.net> <12907@steinmetz.ge.com> <10867@s.ms.uky.edu> <5666@cbmvax.UUCP> <12@netserv2.its.rpi.edu>
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Reply-To: don@brillig.umd.edu.UUCP (Don Hopkins)
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction Lab
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Using linear pull down menus is like having to climb ladders to get
where you're going.  There's a more natural metaphore for round pie
menus, though.  I think of pie menus as rooms with doors leading off
in different directions.  Navigating a tree of nested pie menus is
like running around a building or an adventure game.  You can learn
how to get to a certian selection, by remembering a spatial path from
room to room.  Then you just move the mouse along that path, clicking
through each door, and you're there.  

	-Don