A Zigzag Approach to Cascading Menus

Duane Yoder¹, Raihan Uddin Ahmed², Munsi Barkatullah² and A. S. M Mahmudul Hasan^3,

¹Department of Computer Science, State University of West Georgia, Georgia, USA

²Department of CSE/IT, University of Information Technology and Sciences, Dhaka, Bangladesh

³School of Science and Technology, Bangladesh Open University, Gazipur, Bangladesh

Cite this paper:
Duane Yoder, Raihan Uddin Ahmed, Munsi Barkatullah and A. S. M Mahmudul Hasan. A Zigzag Approach to Cascading Menus. Journal of Computer Sciences and Applications. 2015; 3(4):94-99. doi: 10.12691/jcsa-3-4-2

Abstract

The traditional cascading menu, commonly used in most desktop applications to traverse hierarchical menu systems, can be a time consuming and difficult task. In particular, the wider the submenu the more difficult it becomes to navigate the constraints of a menu item to reach the submenu. As a consequence, the submenu may disappear requiring additional attempts to attain the submenu. When a target menu items resides several layers deep, the required navigation can produce inefficient time and distance management. In this paper, we present an innovative cascading menu called the zigzag menu to address these issues. In the zigzag menu, submenus appear in alternating directions reducing the navigational distance to reach a submenu. A user study confirmed that a zigzag cascading menu effectively reduces the total mouse traversal required and decreases navigational time as familiarity with the system increases.

Keywords:
human computer interaction menu navigation cascading menus steering law

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