Idea for GUI: Pie menus as alternative to linear menus in UI2 ?

[bulek]

Hi,

I ran accross this interesting idea :
http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/100

I'm not using UI2 with Fire Chief (I'm expecting to have it soon), but in my humble opinion, pie menus could have  several advantages over current linear menus that are traversed with gyro remotes, cause it's easier to make them more accurate by moving in some direction (it registers regardless of "amplitude" of movement, just direction) than moving across linear list and stop at proper point....

Any thoughts ?

Regards,

Bulek.

[jondecker76]

While the idea behind pie menues has its merit, I simply don't like them. They say you can select an option faster, but in my opinion it takes longer to read all of the options (who reads in circles anyways?)
The idea just seems a little too funky to me, and its too different from how nearly every other system works. I don't mind change, but for me this kind of a change would be too much to have what I would consider a smooth-flowing UI, and I think there are plenty of others that would agree.

It'd be interesting to see everyone else's feelings on this as well.

[nosilla99]

Certainly an interesting idea and I could see it working well for gyro based pointers.  I think it would be good as an option but I am also one of the old school types who struggles with change (I still sort my media by filename as that is what works best for me in terms of quick navigation).

For it to work well you would probably have to increase the menu hierarchy depth, i.e restrict number of options on screen and therefore increase the click count in navigation terms.  This could slow selection, but conversely it could speed it up due to less acuracy being required when using a gyro pointer.

So in summary yes would like to see this as an option, but please don't take away the option of linear menus   

NOS

[bulek]

Certainly an interesting idea and I could see it working well for gyro based pointers.  I think it would be good as an option but I am also one of the old school types who struggles with change (I still sort my media by filename as that is what works best for me in terms of quick navigation).

For it to work well you would probably have to increase the menu hierarchy depth, i.e restrict number of options on screen and therefore increase the click count in navigation terms.  This could slow selection, but conversely it could speed it up due to less acuracy being required when using a gyro pointer.

So in summary yes would like to see this as an option, but please don't take away the option of linear menus   

NOS

Sure, there must be user's choice. My whole point is that pie menus are more suitable for gyro remotes, cause it's always hard to stop at certain point in a list of 30 options.

Regarding number of choices... Having small number of options is IMHO a sign of well structured menus... So if one succeeds to organize menus into hierarchy with small number of options on each level, then is good for either menus...

Regards,
Bulek.

[nosilla99]

@Bulek

Could not agree more, lets hope it is considered for the UI3 although I think that is going to be some time off

NOS