Rules to build user friendly menus

Legend

In the text below :

• MM means Main Menu. Main menu is the main bar of menus which gives access to all features
• CO means Command. A command is available in menu, it executes an action
• SM means Sub Menu. A submenu is an entry which open an other menu
• CM means Contextual Menu. A menu displayed only in a specific context (ie while on a node or on the map background)
• XX# means rules number # for subject XX.

Rules to organize Main Menu

• (MM1) a MM entry is created for each nature of operation (File / Edit / Display ...)
• (MM2) MM should be in a logical order inspired by other softwares best pratices

Rules to organize Commands in menus

• (CO1) in a MM entry, items are grouped by type of operations (all commands to move nodes are at the same place)
• (CO2) items are ordered logicaly (items used First at the beginning : ie Create New then Edit then Remove).

Use of Sub Menus

• (SM1) SM are created to simplify long MM or CM (ie more than 20 items in the menu)
• (SM2) SM should be limited to 3 levels (ie 3 clicks before displaying the wanted command)
• (SB3) SM should contain 3 items or more

Contextual Menu

• (CM1) in CM order should be the same as in the MM (consistency for end-users)
• (CM2) CM should contain only very frequently used commands

Toolbars

• (TB1) the rules for toolbars are the same as for CM : same order as MM, only frequently used commands.