Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!strath-cs!glasgow!cocksho From: cocksho@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Tunde M. Cockshott) Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng Subject: Re: Using kinesthetic memory for human interfaces Summary: Sub pie menus. Message-ID: <1434@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> Date: 29 Jun 88 10:33:09 GMT References: <3535@pdn.uucp><4988@watcgl.waterloo.edu> Reply-To: cocksho@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Tunde M. Cockshott) Organization: Comp Sci, Glasgow Univ, Scotland Lines: 22 What is the standard method of sub-menus with pie-menus ? The ones I have had experience of offer a child menu when you leave the circular perimeter of the parent. This system has the problem that the child covers a large part of the parent. This may be fine for experienced users but for novices it makes it difficult for the user to reasses his choice in the light of the contents of the child. If the desired item is not included in the child, then the user would like to scan the parent for any other likely contenders. The delay required to leave the child in order to make the parent visable is small but over a period of time would be frustrating. An alternitive might be to 'fan out' a semi - circular menu from the edge of the pie section. This would keep the whole menu tree always visable. A dissadvantage is that it would limit the number of entries in the sub menus. Is this a problem ? What other systems are there ? Tunde Cockshott.