Menu Selection, Form Filling and Dialog Boxes

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Menu Selection,Form Filling andDialog Boxes
Wei Wang April 12, 1999
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Outline

• Menus
• Task-Related organization
• Guidelines for designing menus
• Form filling
• Dialog box
• Examples
• Patient Encounter Forms

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Menus

• A list of commands or options from which you can
  choose
• Based on the principle of see-and-point
• Offer cues, indicate choices
• For users with little training
• Most applications now have a menu-driven
  component

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Task-Related Organization

• Single menus
• Linear sequences and multiple menus
• Tree-structured menus
• Acyclic and cyclic menu networks

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Single Menus

• Binary menus
• Mnemonic letters
• Radio Buttons
• Button Choice
• Multiple-item menus
• Multiple-selection menus or check boxes
• Pull-down or pop-up menus
• Scrolling and two-dimensional menus
• Alphasliders
• Embedded links
• Iconic Menus, toolbars, or palettes

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Linear Sequences and Multiple Menus

• Guide the users through complex decision-making
  processes
• E.g. cue cards or "Wizards"

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Tree-structured Menus

• When a collection of items grows and become
  difficult to maintain , designers can form
  categories of similar items, creating a tree
  structure
• Examples
• Male, female
• Spring, summer, autumn, winter
• Fonts, size, style, spacing
• Depth versus Breadth

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Acyclic and Cyclic Networks

• Useful for
• social relationships
• transportation routing
• scientific-journal citations
• Can cause confusion and disorientation

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Guidelines for Designing Menus

• Keep menu structures simple
• Group like menu elements together
• List menu selections by frequency of use
• List menu selections by order of use
• Separate destructive actions
• Provide mnemonics and accelerators
• Use TearOffButtons in frequently used menus

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Form Filling

• Appropriate when many fields of data must be
  entered
• Form-Filling Design Guidelines
• Meaningful title
• Comprehensible instructions
• Logical grouping and sequencing of fields
• Visually appealing layout of the form
• Familiar field labels

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Form-Filling Design Guidelines

• Consistent terminology and abbreviations
• Visible space and boundaries for data-entry
• fields
• Convenient cursor movement
• Error handling
• Optional fields clearly marked
• Explanatory messages for fields
• Completion signal

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Dialog Boxes

• Combination of menu and form-filling techniques
• Related to a specific task
• Internal layout guidelines
• Meaningful title, consistent style
• Top-left to bottom-right sequencing
• Clustering and emphasis
• Consistent layouts (margins, grid, whitespace,
  lines, boxes)
• Consistent terminology, fonts, capitalization,
  justification
• Standard buttons (OK, Cancel)
• Error prevention by direct manipulation

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Dialog Boxes

• External Relationship
• Smooth appearance and disappearance
• Distinguishable but small boundary
• Size small enough to reduce overlap problems
  
• Display close to appropriate items
• Easy to make disappear
• Clear how to complete/cancel

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Examples

• Patient Encounter Forms
• Adult Comprehensive Visit
• Alcohol Abuse Symptoms
• www.medicalogic.com