Menu (computing) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Computing

Computing is usually defined as the activity of using and improving computer hardware and software. It is the computer-specific part of information technology...

and telecommunication

Telecommunication

Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...

s, a menu is a list of command

Command (computing)

In computing, a command is a directive to a computer program acting as an interpreter of some kind, in order to perform a specific task. Most commonly a command is a directive to some kind of command line interface, such as a shell....

s presented to an operator

Operator (profession)

An operator is a professional designation used in various industries, including broadcasting , computing, customer service, physics, and construction. Operators are day-to-day end users of systems, that may or may not be mission-critical, but are typically managed and maintained by technicians or...

by a computer

Computer

A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

or communications system

Communications system

In telecommunication, a communications system is a collection of individual communications networks, transmission systems, relay stations, tributary stations, and data terminal equipment usually capable of interconnection and interoperation to form an integrated whole...

. A menu is used in contrast to a command-line interface

Command-line interface

A command-line interface is a mechanism for interacting with a computer operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks...

, where instructions to the computer are given in the form of commands (or verb

Verb

A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...

s).

Choices given from a menu may be selected by the operator by a number of methods (called interfaces

User interface

The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...

depressing one or more keys on the keyboard or mouse
positioning a cursor
Cursor (computers)
In computing, a cursor is an indicator used to show the position on a computer monitor or other display device that will respond to input from a text input or pointing device. The flashing text cursor may be referred to as a caret in some cases...

or reverse video
Reverse video
Reverse video is a computer display technique whereby the background and text colour values are inverted. On older computers, displays were usually configured to display white text on a black background by default. For emphasis, one swapped the color scheme to bright background with dark text...

bar by using a keyboard
Computer keyboard
In computing, a keyboard is a typewriter-style keyboard, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys, to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches...

, mouse, or remote control
Remote control
A remote control is a component of an electronics device, most commonly a television set, used for operating the television device wirelessly from a short line-of-sight distance.The remote control is usually contracted to remote...

D-pad
D-pad
A D-pad is a flat, usually thumb-operated directional control with one button on each point, found on nearly all modern video game console gamepads, game controllers, on the remote control units of some television and DVD players, and smart phones...
using an electromechanical pointer, such as a light pen
Light pen
A light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a computer's CRT TV set or monitor. It allows the user to point to displayed objects, or draw on the screen, in a similar way to a touch screen but with greater positional accuracy...
touching
Touchscreen
A touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus...

the display screen
Computer display
A monitor or display is an electronic visual display for computers. The monitor comprises the display device, circuitry, and an enclosure...

with a finger
speaking to a voice-recognition system
Interactive voice response
Interactive voice response is a technology that allows a computer to interact with humans through the use of voice and DTMF keypad inputs....

Types of menus

A computer using a graphical user interface

Graphical user interface

In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...

presents menus with a combination of text

Plain text

In computing, plain text is the contents of an ordinary sequential file readable as textual material without much processing, usually opposed to formatted text....

and symbol

Icon (computing)

A computer icon is a pictogram displayed on a computer screen and used to navigate a computer system or mobile device. The icon itself is a small picture or symbol serving as a quick, intuitive representation of a software tool, function or a data file accessible on the system. It functions as an...

s to represent choices. By clicking on one of the symbols or text, the operator is selecting the instruction that the symbol represents. A context menu

Context menu

A context menu is a menu in a graphical user interface that appears upon user interaction, such as a right mouse click or middle click mouse operation...

is a menu in which the choices presented to the operator are automatically modified according to the current context in which the operator is working.

A common use of menus is to provide convenient access to various operations such as saving or opening a file

Computer file

A computer file is a block of arbitrary information, or resource for storing information, which is available to a computer program and is usually based on some kind of durable storage. A file is durable in the sense that it remains available for programs to use after the current program has finished...

, quitting a program

Computer program

A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...

, or manipulating data. Most widget toolkit

Widget toolkit

In computing, a widget toolkit, widget library, or GUI toolkit is a set of widgets for use in designing applications with graphical user interfaces...

s provide some form of pull-down or pop-up menu. Pull-down menus are the type commonly used in menu bar

Menu bar

A menu bar is a region of a screen or application interface where drop down menus are displayed. The menu bar's purpose is to supply a common housing for window- or application-specific menus which provide access to such functions as opening files, interacting with an application, or displaying...

s (usually near the top of a window

Window (computing)

In computing, a window is a visual area containing some kind of user interface. It usually has a rectangular shape that can overlap with the area of other windows...

or screen), which are most often used for performing actions, whereas pop-up (or "fly-out") menus are more likely to be used for setting a value, and might appear anywhere in a window.

According to traditional human interface guidelines, menu names were always supposed to be verbs, such as "file", "edit" and so on. This has been largely ignored in subsequent user interface developments. A single word verb however is sometimes unclear, and so as to allow for multiple word menu names, the idea of a vertical menu was invented, as seen in NeXTSTEP

NEXTSTEP

NeXTSTEP was the object-oriented, multitasking operating system developed by NeXT Computer to run on its range of proprietary workstation computers, such as the NeXTcube...

.

Menus are now also seen in consumer electronics

Consumer electronics

Consumer electronics are electronic equipment intended for everyday use, most often in entertainment, communications and office productivity. Radio broadcasting in the early 20th century brought the first major consumer product, the broadcast receiver...

, starting with TV sets that had then-new on-screen display

On-screen display

An on-screen display is an image superimposed on a screen picture, commonly used by modern television sets, VCRs, and DVD players to display information such as volume, channel, and time.-History:...

s in the early 1990s

1990s

File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...

, and extending into computer monitors, VCRs, and DVD player

DVD player

A DVD player is a device that plays discs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. These devices were invented in 1997 and continue to thrive...

s. Menus allow the control of settings like tint

Tint

In color theory, a tint is the mixture of a color with white.Tint may also refer to:* Tint control, an adjustment to correct for phase error in the picture color on a NTSC television set* Tint , an album by Merzbow...

, brightness

Brightness

Brightness is an attribute of visual perception in which a source appears to be radiating or reflecting light. In other words, brightness is the perception elicited by the luminance of a visual target...

, contrast

Display contrast

Contrast in visual perception is the difference in appearance of two or more parts of a field seen simultaneously or successively ....

, bass and treble, and other functions such as channel memory and closed captioning

Closed captioning

Closed captioning is the process of displaying text on a television, video screen or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information to individuals who wish to access it...

. Other electronics with text-only display

Text display

A text display is an electronic alphanumeric display device that is mainly or only capable of showing text, or extremely limited graphic characters...

s can also have menus, anything from business telephone systems with digital telephone

Telephone

The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...

s, to weather radios that can be set to respond only to specific weather warning

Weather warning

A Weather warning generally refers to an alert issued by a meteorological agency to warn citizens of approaching dangerous weather. A weather watch, on the other hand, typically refers to an alert issued to indicate that conditions are favorable for the development of dangerous weather patterns,...

s in a specific area. Other more recent electronics in the 2000s also have menus, such as digital media players.

Sub-menus

Menus are sometimes hierarchically organized, allowing navigation through different levels of the menu structure. Selecting a menu entry with an arrow will expand it, showing a second menu (the sub-menu) with options related to the selected entry.

Usability

Usability

Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. The object of use can be a software application, website, book, tool, machine, process, or anything a human interacts with. A usability study may be conducted as a primary job function by a usability analyst or as a secondary job...

of sub-menus has been criticized as difficult, because of the narrow height that must be crossed by the pointer. The steering law predicts that this movement will be slow, and any error in touching the boundaries of the parent menu entry will hide the sub-menu. Some techniques proposed to alleviate these errors are keeping the sub-menu open while moving the pointer in diagonal, and using Mega Drop-Down menus designed to enhance scannability and categorization of its contents.

External links

MenUA: A Design Space of Menu Techniques Site that discusses various menu design techniques.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Types of menus

Sub-menus

See also

External links