[Rooster99]

When I use a Windows system, I know that File is the left menu, with Edit beside it, then app-specific menus between, and Help is on the far right. If it's an app that has reports those are just beside Help, and if there are window layout controls those are typically between Reports and Help. Oh, and I can close every app by using File > Exit.

That sort of consistency makes adoption and the use of infrequently-used apps so much easier.

Why don't Berries have the same consistent structure? Close isn't always at the bottom of the menu, some apps don't even use Close in the menu, they use the Back key, and the menu selections are organized in some bizarre manner I can't figure out (sequenced by the hex value of the selection's name?). This inconsistency drives several of my non-techie friends to distraction, and definitely limits how far they push any Berry apps. I won't even mention the disdain my software developer friends have for such sloppiness in a UI.

Anyway, it seems like such a simple thing that would be so valuable. Is there some reason they don't have consistent standards for menu selections?

Hopefully they'll do this as part of QNX, OS7 or whatever they bring out next.

- R.

[sivan]

That is an annoying weakness. In RIM development articles they remind developers to pay attention to this but they don't enforce it like, say, Apple.

Some of this confusion is inherent to back buttons in general. It makes sense a lot of times, but occasionally it does the unexpected or its purpose is ambiguous.

On the other hand, its absence is also a problem on the iPhone. For example, if an app launches a link in Safari, once you're done reading, there is no way to automatically navigate back to the application that opened it. Not only there isn't a back button, but the iPhone doesn't even support this for developers to implement on their own. Some apps like Twitter include their own internal Safari view just to get around that problem. That's a major design deficiency on the iPhone.

In practice though, those inconsistencies on the BlackBerry are made up for by the quickness with which you can operate menus. I'm generally referring to a classic BlackBerry here. First, it's easy to just hit either 'e' to select Exit or 'c' to select Close. Second, many times the default action preselected is often correct so it's just double tap the menu to perform it without thinking (e.g. play next in PodTrapper, open link in Twitter). Third, if you get something wrong, it's usually just a keystroke or tap of a button to fix it. Because the traditional BlackBerry does not animate transitions, there is no painful waiting to take corrective action. So I would argue that its efficiency makes small inconsistencies like this trivial, and they are learned with time.

Now that RIM is slowly adding more animated effects it's also taking more effort with menus. In OS6 they seem to be better laid out with emphases on default selections and so on.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Rooster99]

Thanks, synth. I hadn't noticed the menu opened to different "default" actions for different apps. I guess what they think I want to do is different from what I think I want to do, as the default never matches my desire. I say just set the menu options in alpha order, then open every time to the top one. I know where I am, if I know what I want to do I can find it pretty quickly, and if you put Close at the bottom of every menu I can always exit quickly.

At the very least, list them in alpha order so I can easily find the ones I'm not familiar with.

- R.

[sivan]

Thanks, synth. I hadn't noticed the menu opened to different "default" actions for different apps. I guess what they think I want to do is different from what I think I want to do, as the default never matches my desire. I say just set the menu options in alpha order, then open every time to the top one. I know where I am, if I know what I want to do I can find it pretty quickly, and if you put Close at the bottom of every menu I can always exit quickly.

At the very least, list them in alpha order so I can easily find the ones I'm not familiar with.

- R.

Alphabetical sort is useful when displaying variable lists, but fixed ones can be learned and grouping by common functionality as well as preselected default actions is usually what you see when pressing the menu.

Menus are very useful but are also problematic from a feature discovery perspective. Often users aren't aware that some action is available to them via a menu that's not open on the screen. On the iPhone there are no menus precisely for this reason, all controls and button are on the screen. This ensures easy learning, but of a very restricted set of features due to screen constraints.

In OS6 RIM is making the menus more of a grid of icons with emphasis on selecting the default for each context. The nice thing about a default is that a double tap on the menu button pops out the menu and activates the action without a need to select anything, it's instantaneous. So for something like advancing the track in PodTrapper or opening a link in Twitter it's very convenient.

Again, at least on keyboard Blackberrys, even if menus are not always consistent, selecting something else is usually just a keystroke away. The flow of actions on a BlackBerry is often as quick and natural like typing letters and correcting typos.