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.

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

The solution

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