Develop System Menus and Navigation Schemes 331

Step 4: Develop System Menus and Navigation Schemes 331

Keyword first. Arrange multi-item descriptions so that the descriptive and unique words appear at its beginning. This optimizes scanning and recognition while the user is learning the menu. Description phrasing and wording should also be con- sistent across all menus to aid learning further.

Capitalization. Use the headline style of presentation. Whichever style is chosen should be consistently followed for all menus. Task-oriented wording. Task-oriented wording is preferable to data-oriented word- ing. Task-oriented wording usually positions a verb first, such as Manage Customer Information. An example of data-oriented wording would be to sim- ply say Customers. What is being done with, for, or to customers is unclear in the latter.

Parallel construction. When choices are composed of phrases, use a parallel word construction in creating descriptions for related choices. Parallel construction would be: Print a File, Execute a Program, and Eject a Disk. An example of non- parallel construction is: Print; Execute a Program, and Disk Eject.

Relationship to title.

A menu choice must never have the same wording as the title of the menu on which it is presented.

Consistency across menus. Identical choices on different menus should be worded the same. Numbering. Items should not be numbered unless the listing is numeric in nature, graphic, or a list of varying items. Command language. If menu options will be used in conjunction with a command language, the capitalization and syntax of the captions should be consistent with those of the command language.

Word as a command to computer. Phrase all menu choices as commands to the computer whenever possible. For example, say

Choose one: Save and exit Exit without saving

rather than Do you want to save and exit? Yes No

Wording a choice as a command to the computer more clearly describes the action of what the command accomplishes. The Yes/No alternatives shown in the preceding example must be comprehended in conjunction with the question being asked. Wording a choice as a command also provides choice phrasing that is consistent with other system commands. A system, for example, often contains the standard commands Save and Exit. In addition, command wording enhances the learning of command mnemonics. Finally, this wording implies that the ini- tiative is with the user in the dialog, not with the computer.

332 Part 2: The User Interface Design Process

Menu Instructions

For novice or inexperienced users, provide menu completion instructions. — Place the instructions in a position just preceding the part, or parts, of the menu

to which they apply. — Present instructions in a mixed-case font in sentence style.

For expert users, make these instructions easy to ignore by — Presenting them in a consistent location. — Displaying them in a unique type style and/or color.

People not familiar with a system and its menus may need guidance on how to complete a menu. Their needs may, however, have to be balanced against the needs of experienced users who may not want or desire such assistance. To satisfy the needs of all kinds of users at the same time necessitates that menu instructions be included on a menu, but that these instructions be easily ignored by those who do not need them.

Novice or inexperienced users. Provide explicit menu completion instructions for novice or inexperienced menu users. Place the instructions in a position just pre- ceding the part, or parts, of the menu to which they apply. Present the instruc- tions in a mixed-case, sentence-style font.

Expert users. When instructions are included on menus, they must be visually rec- ognized as instructions. This will allow them to be easily ignored by the expert user when they are not needed, or no longer needed. Therefore, some visual aspect of the instruction must indicate that it is an instruction. As mentioned in Step 3 , designers of paper forms do this by presenting instructions in a different font or font style such as italics. The form user then immediately recognizes them as instructions, and they can be read or ignored as is desired.

To make instructions immediately recognizable as instructions on a menu, then, present them in a unique font or color. If one of these methods is used, how- ever, cautions concerning the excessive use of different font styles (and colors, as shown in Step 12) must be heeded. Another, but less visually strong, technique is to identify the technique simply by its location. Begin the instruction to the left of the screen elements to which it applies, the left-justification identifying it as an instruction. Guidelines for writing text, including instructions, are discussed in Step 8.