Pie menu
|
|
A pie menu in The Sims computer game.
In graphical user interfaces, a pie menu (also known as "radial menu") is a circular menu widget made of several "pie slices" around an inactive center.
A slice can lead to another pie menu; selecting this may center the mouse cursor in the new menu.
Pie menus are often context-sensitive, showing different options depending on what the mouse cursor was pointing at when the menu was requested.
Don Hopkins is the main pie menu proponent.
| Contents |
Advantages
- faster and more reliable selection than linear menus due to:
- size and proximity of menu items (Fitts' law)
- muscle memory utilization
- selection depending on direction instead of distance
- Shows available options, as opposed to invisible mouse gestures.
- Delayed appearance until mouse button release equalizes intrusiveness between mouse gestures and pie menus for experienced people.
- Nested pie menus efficiently display many options.
Disadvantages
- Take up more screen space than traditional linear menus.
- Number of slices in an individual menu must be kept low for effectiveness (use submenus)
Usage
Beginner
- click and release mouse button, causing the pie menu to display
- move the mouse into the desired slice
- click the desired action
Exit by clicking the center.
Expert
- click and hold down the mouse button
- move mouse onto the desired action
- release mouse button
Implementations
- Games: The Sims, Monkey Island 3, Full Throttle, Neverwinter Nights
Missing image
RadialContext.png
RadialContext.png
RadialContext pie menu
- Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox extensions RadialContext (http://www.radialthinking.de/radialcontext/) and EasyGestures (http://easygestures.mozdev.org/)
Pie menu rarity
Why pie menus are rare:
- Unavailability of pie menus as standard widgets. Games often require custom widget development, so pie menu cost is lower.
- Difficulty of adding new widgets to popular user interface toolkits
References
- Template:Conference reference
- Why pie menus aren't ubiquitous (http://www.infovis.net/printMag.php?num=125&lang=2)
See also
- Pie Menu Central (http://www.piemenus.com/)
- Pie Menus in c2 wiki (http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?PieMenus)
- Slashdot: Pie-menus in Mozilla (http://slashdot.org/articles/02/08/22/1732201.shtml?tid=154|)