Blooper 1: Dynamic Menus

    From GUI Bloopers, by Jeff Johnson (Morgan Kaufman Publishers, 2000). Used without permission.

    Only commands that are applicable to the selected object are shown. Is this a good idea? It would seem so, as it reduces the complexity of a menu. Below is an application where the edit menu appears different based on the object selected.

    What is wrong with this?

    • inconsistent
    • confusing
    • hard to learn where commands are located

    The solution

    Here is another approach:

    What's right?

    • menus are consistent
    • can recognize commands as applicable and not applicable