[opensource-dev] Open Viewer Development Announcement

Arrehn Oberlander arrehn at gmail.com
Wed Aug 18 08:54:53 PDT 2010


I realize that there's pros and cons to this UI selection vs box
popups. However I don't believe the choice is at all cut and dry. When
I stopped using the pie menu (because it doesn't exist in viewer 2.x)
I discovered all sorts of navigation difficulties that where
previously unknown.


- The box dropdown requires the user to have greater precision and
care when making selections
- The pie menu supported muscle-memory for choices better
- The pie menu does a better job of hiding the rarely used options and
conversely making the most popular options highly visible.
- The pie menu obscured less of the screen when it was active
- The pie menu as implemented does a better job of cloaking/disabling
unusable choices, the box menu greys them out but they are still
visually harder to navigate.
- The pie menu always pops up directly under the cursor, the box menu
pops up to an indeterminent side depending on position. This is more
predictable behavior and requires less mouse movement.
- There's a large number of users already familiar with the pie menu.
- After using both methods for a while, the pie menu is my personal
preference by a fair margin.


I looked at the XUI API docs to see what would be involved in bringing
them back. I was concerned to see that the pie menu status lists as
"deprecated". I believe this should be re-examined and hopefully be in
the backlog for debate.


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