Menu Interaction and DesignThis document assumes a fundamental understanding of the interaction design for conventional context/pop up menus. For background, consult platform specific UI documention. The method described here is for designing context sensitive menus in applications of high content density, such as web content. Considering the increasing number of novice Windows users who use right mouse click as a means of discovering features, the menus are decidedly geared toward more general use, rather than containing exclusively hidden or esoteric features. Also, by representing multiple contexts in cases which are ambiguous, we provide convenience from having to right click in multiple targets, or zones, and increase the liklihood for the user to hit their intended feature. Supported CasesThe following cases listed below are specified in this document. For yet-to-be-specified cases, or, if changes to a case are necessary, follow the Menu Design Principles.
Chrome:
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Content Area Menu (see alternate Macintosh terms indicated by an *)
The Menu
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Core Set
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alt text:[bookmark this page]?
* [Alias in Finder] for mac [View Background Image] is enabled only if there is a background image in the page. [Stop] is enabled if a page is still loading * [Alias in Finder] for mac [Character Encoding] should be off by default for English/US users, toggled in the view menu, or shipped only in "internationalized" versions of the product. - consider duplicity of Create Desktop Shortcut and Save Page as... - [Page Source] and [Page Info] to be combined into [Page Properties] feature. the shortcut, discrete access of [page source] and [page info] individually is archaic. combining both into a [Page Properties] (replaces page info) feature which adds a button to the [General] Tab which would launch View Page Source window. -Replace [Add Page to Bookmarks] with [Bookmark This Page] which is no longer 'silent'. This change is in lieu of a Bookmark feature redesign, which will streamline the application model for bookmarking. The redesigned Bookmark Menu should have only on Menu item:[Bookmark This Page] and not [Add Bookmark] - the resulting dialog will allow user to choose silent bookmarking preference. -[Show Menu Bar] would only be visible if one were missing, for example in chromeless window, to relieve the need for duplication of any menu items in context menus. -** What happened to [View Source] and [Page Info]?? Propose a new consolidated Page Properties dialog which consolidates the two previous items into a tabbed interface of Page Properties. If this dialog cannot be implemented in Mach V, then keep the menu item broken out into two items everywhere Page Properties is currently. |
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items in square brackets are only visible under certain circumstances |
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4.x |
IE5.5 |
Opera 6.0 |
Opera Flyouts |
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Selected Content Menu
The Menu
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Core Set
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alt:bookmark this page?
- *RFE [Send Quoted Selection...] - quote formatting in email with URL provided by reference source URL followed by content indented example in the body of a mail message: quote from: http://foo.com/foo ipsum lorem foo ipsum lorem foo ipsum lorem foo ipsum lorem foo ipsum lorem foo ipsum llorem foo ipsum lorem foo ipsum lorem foo... - Perform Search on... - context ambiguity is extremely low (allowing high degradation of menu items), because 2 very certain conditions must be met: to invoke: make the selection, right clicking on that selection, or in the horizontal vicinity of that selection. right clicking outside of selection would still pertain to that selection unless it were outside the 'horizontal vicinity' of that selection. then we would deselect, and produce the previous context - if another context were contained within that selection, then right clicking on that element would produce the context menu for that element while keeping the selection. We don't want to loose the selection for a user if he/she is still in the region. - "Cut, Copy, Paste, Select All" - Visit Selection as URL - is open to negotiation. idea found in bug #15176 - if inserting "foo..." proves to be too lengthy then suggest using the term, "selection" in it's place. - *if selected content contained links and or images, we should still treat this context as 'selected content' exlusively, to avoid growing menus and complexity.. Since the tolerance for mistaken intent for this context is extremely low - [Change Text Direction] turning on bidi option in the main menus (use the same switch as Character Encoding), or by detecting the region and language, will allow user to access 2 new features in context menus: change text direction in text fields and in selected text - * RFE [Highlight Selection >] Would produce a color picker which allow user to highlight content on a page. |
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4.x |
IE5.5 |
Opera 6.0 |
Opera Flyouts |
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Ignored - same as previous context |
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Text as Link Menu (kin: text as mailto: link, text as news: link) (child: image as link)
The Menu
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Core Set
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would link properties be useful?
- ambiguous context is fair - since it could a link could potentially be mistaken for the page button as link could also use this same menu (bug 63823) - ctrl-right click would change [Open Link in New Tab] and [Open Link in New Window] to [Open Link in New Backround Tab], [Open Link in New Backround Window] - [Copy Link Location] copies only the URL, not the HREF. copying a URL is much more valuable and practical for most users than copying a bunch of code. You can retrieve a link HREF by selecting Link Properties, and copying it from there. The reason it must be left out is to keep the image as link menu from growing beyond 16 items. |
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4.x |
IE5.5 |
Opera 6.0 |
Opera Flyouts |
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[Page >] provides entire previous context | ||||||||
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Inline Image Menu (see alternate Macintosh terms indicated by *)
The Menu
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Core Set
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- very high potential for mistaken context -
an image could be mistaken for the content area. keep 4 of the core content area menu items for contextual ambiguity's sake - the utility of [copy image location] is questionable, since it could be accomplished a number of other ways. However at this menu's current length, it's not posing much harm. - removing [Create Desktop Shortcut] to spare the [image as link] menu. - * Netscape Commercial RFE - Send image to online buddy shortcut. Would display a submenu which allow user to quickly transmit an image to an online buddy. - |
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4.x |
IE5.5 |
Opera 6.0 |
Opera Flyouts |
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[Page >] provides entire previous context | ||||||||||
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Image as Link Menu (see alternate Macintosh terms indicated by *) (kin: image as mailto: link, image as news: link)
The Menu
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Core Set
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- fair potential for 3 mistaken contexts -
could potentially be mistaken for page - link context should have higher priority than the image. - Formula for this menu is to combine Link Menu and Image Menu. The Link subset should take precedence over the Image subset. - 16 items - [page source] not included because of rarity that a single linked image dominates the entire page. - Are [Link Properties] and [Image Properties] both useful as features? If not then consider replacing with [Page Properties] only. |
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4.x |
IE5.5 |
Opera 6.0 |
Opera Flyouts |
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[Page >] provides entire previous context | ||||||||||
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Image as URL Menu (see alternate Macintosh terms indicated by *)
The Menu
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Core Set
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- [Back] returns user to previous page, if available.
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4.x |
IE5.5 |
Opera 6.0 |
Opera Flyouts |
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Text as mailto: Link Menu (kin: text as link, text as news: link)
The Menu
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Core Set
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what is link properties?
- context ambiguity is fair - - [Select All]? |
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4.x |
IE5.5 |
Opera 6.0 |
Opera Flyouts |
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Uses same menu for Text Link |
[Page >] provides entire previous context | |||||||
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Image as mailto: Link Menu (kin: image as link, image as news: link)
The Menu
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Core Set
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what is link properties?
- Formula for this menu is to combine Link Menu and Image Menu. The Link subset should take precedence over the Image subset. |
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4.x |
IE5.5 |
Opera 6.0 |
Opera Flyouts |
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Uses same menu for Text Link |
tack on the image subset to the mailto mailto subset. |
[Page >] provides entire previous context | ||||||||
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Text as news: Link Menu (kin: text as link, text as mailto: link)
The Menu
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Core Set
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* [Alias in Finder] for mac
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4.x |
IE5.5 |
Opera 6.0 |
Opera Flyouts |
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same menu for text link | Uses same menu for Text Link |
[Page >] provides entire previous context | ||||||
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Image as news: Link Menu (kin: image as mailto: link, image as link)
The Menu
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Core Set
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what is link properties?
- contextual ambiguity is fair - - Formula for this menu is to combine News Link Menu and Image Menu. The News Link subset should take precedence over the Image subset. |
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4.x |
IE5.5 |
Opera 6.0 |
Opera Flyouts |
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same menu for text link | Uses same menu for Text Link |
[Page >] provides entire previous context | ||||||
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Form/Input Field Menu
The Menu
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Core Set
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- [New Feature] toggle autocheck spelling checker
- editiable text menu cross reference - turning on bidi option in the main menus (use the same switch as Character Encoding), or by detecting the region and language, will allow user to access 2 new features in context menus: change text direction in text fields and in selected text |
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4.x |
IE5.5 |
Opera 6.0 |
Opera Flyouts |
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-Opera 6 takes you to form fill settings/presets |
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The Frame Subset (see alternate Macintosh terms indicated by *)
Sample: Content Area Menu
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The Subset
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-Insert the frame subset to any Context which lives within a frame - place the flyout item between the first group of items and the subsequent groups as shown in the example of the Content Area menu to the left.
- totally ambiguous - frame context could be mistook for page,or anything else for that matter. - any contextual menu element which exists on a framed page should be treated as part of the most global context. for example - [view background] doesn't belong in the frame context or the user model of a site, because our users by and large aren't concerned that frames exist. So, if there is background to view then it should appear to belong to the page, not in any particular frame to which it actually belongs. the same would be true for: - form items, background images, etc. - *[Alias in Finder] for mac [Character Encoding] should be off by default for English/US Western Users, toggled in the view menu, or shipped only in "internationalized" versions of the product. |
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4.x |
IE5.5 |
Opera 6.0 |
Opera Flyouts |
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IE makes no distinction between the frame and regular content. |
Opera adds a single flyout to provide disctinction between contexts |
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Sidebar Tab Menu
The Menu
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4.x |
IE5.5 |
Opera 6.0 |
Opera Flyouts |
n/a |
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Page Tab Menu
The Menu |
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formula = tab / content area - [bookmark tab set] - page tab properties takes you to prefs |
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4.x |
IE5.5 |
Opera 6.0 |
Opera Flyouts |
n/a |
n/a |
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Page Tab Bar Menu
The Menu |
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formula = tab / content area - [bookmark tab set] -page tab properties takes you to prefs |
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4.x |
IE5.5 |
Opera 6.0 |
Opera Flyouts |
n/a |
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Toolbar / Chrome Menus
Feature Menu |
Button Menu |
Personal Toolbar Menu |
Generic Toolbar Menu |
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4.x |
IE5.5 |
Opera 6.0 |
Opera Flyouts |
n/a |
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Personal Toolbar Menu
Personal Toolbar Menu |
Personal Toolbar Items (bookmarks) |
Personal Toolbar Items (folders) |
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4.x |
IE5.5 |
Opera 6.0 |
Opera Flyouts |
n/a |
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Manage Bookmarks Menu (incomplete)
Personal Toolbar Menu |
Personal Toolbar Items (bookmarks) |
Personal Toolbar Items (folders) |
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4.x |
IE5.5 |
Opera 6.0 |
Opera Flyouts |
n/a |
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n/a |