Progress
Language Tutorial
for Windows
Design Conventions
There are common practices to consider when designing menus. Following these guidelines gives your menus a common look and makes them predictable so that users can navigate unfamiliar applications more quickly. Here are some useful design conventions:
- Group menu items in submenus by task. Order the tasks by frequency of use, as well as the order in which they are used. Place the most frequently used menu items where users can easily access them—in general on the left and close to the top.
- Keep any destructive menu item (like delete) away from frequently used menu items.
- Disable menu items when they are not appropriate.
- When possible, provide alternate methods for accessing menus, like mnemonics and accelerator keys.
- Use an ellipsis (...) to indicate menu items that require further user input.
- Each menu bar should contain at minimum these three items: File, Edit, and Help.
- Place the Exit option as the last menu item on the first menu.
- Limit submenus to three levels or less, because multiple levels of submenus clutter the screen and make the menu difficult to use.
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