Rules to build user friendly menus

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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.