[TYPO3-hci] Quick Question: Pull-down menu library?

[Erik Svendsen]

Hello Kasper,

> What does a "tabbed menu" look like? How does it compare functionally
> to a normal pull-down menu that any application normally has? And if
> tabbed menus are better, then why don't all normal applications stop
> using pull-down menus in up to three levels?
> 
> - kasper
>

I don't know why applications are primarly using dropdown and not tabbed 
menus. One reason could be that dropdowns use less space than tabbed. Another 
could be that MS started to use dropdown together with icons when they made 
their first Windows/Office version (back in early 90). But remember that 
dropdown are sude together with iconbased menu/shortcuts to most used functionality. 
But I think this is going to change the next years.

Mostly are tabbed menus used together with configuration forms, and TYPO3's 
flexform are using a kind of tabbed menus. 

But more important, what could be some pros and cons with dropdown and tabbed. 
And remember, this is my opinion.

Dropdown-menus
Pros:
* Space effective
* Short movement of mouse (most times)

Cons:
* Slipping (when you got slightly out of the dropdown, you have to start 
over again.)
* Don't work well with tabbing and shortcuts (I haven't found any yet amongst 
CSS based, but there are amongst Javascript based (DHTML))
* You have to "restart" the menu everytime you are going to another module/choice.

Tabbed menus
Pros:
* Work very well with tabbing and shortcuts
* All choices on level2 inside one sections are one click away (or one shortcut 
away)

Cons:
* Take more space (double height and more)
* Longer mouse movement inside the menu, expecially when you have many menuobjects.
* Don't work well with more than 2 levels. But there are possible to use 
dropdown on third level.

I suppose there are more pros and cons.

The main reason i got aware of tabbed menus, are a project I'm doing for 
some customers. They wanted me to make an evaluation of MS Vista and MS Office 
2007 (usability, training costs and so on). In this project I did some testing 
with users, and almost everyone found the tabbed menu better to use than 
old dropdown. I didn't use any eyetracker, so it's only what the users said 
in the evaluation afterwards.

But I'm sure that some would prefer dropdown, other tabbed, and maybe some 
would have dropdown together with iconbased meny for the most used choices 
(modules). Editors, administrators and developers would probably prefer different 
solution, mostly because of the number of menuobjects and workflow you are 
using.

And as said earlier, I prefer tabbed most of the time. But to me the most 
imprortant are:
1. The decision of what should be the standard BE menu is taken after all 
possibilities are evaluated regarding to usability and accessebility.
2. The technical solution gives the opportunity to choose old left menu and 
new top menu.
3. It should be possible to develop both dropdown, dropdown with icon to 
most used modules and tabbed. Not that all should be standard, choose one, 
but if someone want to make an alternative through an extension, it should 
be doable.

And I think MS choice of tabbed menus will change how menus are in a lot 
of applications in the future. Like it or not, MS's way to do things change 
the world.

Peter/Tapio's tabbed menus need a lot of refinment to be really usable. But 
the technical base and idea are there. I think designing tabbed menus are 
more complicated than designing dropdowns.

WBR,
Erik Svendsen
www.linnearad.no