15. Menu Controls

Menus are a major interface control as they allow the user to make choice and control the application.

Menu may or may not be visible until some event is triggered by the user such as right clicking the mouse or clicking on a drop down menu.

The menu styles below are some of the possibilities

Hierarchy / Pull down menu

This has a single element visible, then clicking on that element causes a sub-menu to appear. Clicking on a sub-menu item may then make a sub-sub-menu to appear. This is called a hierarchical menu.

Menus can be horizontal as above or the top level could be vertical. Note the menus do not have to text based - it is perfectly fine to use graphical icons as well

Context or 'pop-up' Menu

A context menu shows a different list of choices depending on which icon or item was selected to trigger it i.e. the context of the event.

For instance right clicking on a folder name may offer actions such as 'New..' 'Compress', Delete whilst clicking on an icon may show a list of tool icons.

Full Screen