UI & UX Designers Are Missing This ONE Simple Change Will Make EVERY App & Website Easier to Use.
With all the folks in UI (user-interface) and UX (user-experience) design these days, it’s a wonder to me no one has yet acted on this obvious idea. I like you, so I’m going to share the secret with you in just a moment. But consider this… none of the tech behemoths have acted on it, either.
Not Apple, with its image of being cool. Nor Google, with its image of being fun. Nor Microsoft, with its image of … well, not fun or cool, but efficient, I guess.
Not one of those tech titans, and very few UI UX designers world-wide have acted on the super-simple idea I’m about to share.
Okay, enough. I’ve done my SEO duty and provided a click-bait-like headline, so instead of continuing to keep the answer secret, I’ll come out with it right now.
Alphabetize the options on menus.
That’s it. That’s all.
Alphabetize the options on menus.
Please. Not just right-click menus, not just context menus, ALL menus.
ALL OF THEM.
Alphabetize the options on menus.
Now let me make my case. Let’s look at examples.
Examples of Current, Poorly-Designed, Unordered Menus
MICROSOFT OUTLOOK
Below are the context options in Microsoft Outlook. Right-click on an email and you get a list of possible commands as shown below.
Notice the options are not listed in any order at all. It appears a feeble attempt was made to group them in some way (note the divider lines and the cluster of Reply, Reply All, Forward) but it’s unclear what the grouping scheme is.
Were they bunched by frequency of use? Maybe. But then, what is frequently used by me is not the same for you. Also, if we have to wonder how they are ordered, then the action of grouping them for intuitive use failed.
MICROSOFT WINDOWS 10
Let’s look at another example. The image below is from Microsoft Windows 10. Right click on an item on your desktop and you get a menu like this. Again, long-list, no order. Why is Properties all the way at the bottom, when that’s a key reason to right-click on icons? And why is listed after Rename, surely a commonly-used feature?
MICROSOFT EXCEL
In English we read from left to right, then top to bottom. So when designing things with words in English, that’s the way information should flow. But look at the list of categories at the top… and read left to right … again (!!!) no order whatsoever. I get putting File on the far left — as that controls the essentials for the entire doc. I get putting Help on the far right — so it sticks out and is easy to find. But the rest of the commands are floating in the middle as random as balloons at a child’s birthday.
Now let’s look at the command groups at the bottom of the Excel menu bar ribbon. We’ll look under the Home commands — The image below is hard to see, so I’ll type them here: Clipboard — Font — Alignment — Number — Styles — Cells — Editing — Analysis — Sensitivity.
By now you can guess they’re in no discernible order. They are organized according to … nothing apparent.
GOOGLE SHEETS
I’ve been hitting Microsoft products with this complaint, but Google has the same issue. Below from Google Sheets command bar.
And the drop downs from that command bar? Top to bottom? No order. A sort of grouping according to… something. Maybe.
APPLE MAC OS DESKTOP
Let’s not leave Apple out either. Below from the Mac OS Desktop. From left to right, no order.
…and one of its drop downs…
NO ORDER.
At this point I’m getting tired of these screenshots and tired of repeating myself, and you’re getting tired of it, too.
There are some ways to customize app options (Microsoft Office 365 customize-able quick command ribbon is great) but for the most part, the main menus are locked in their chaotic, ordered-by-nothing sequence.
Disordered Menu Syndrome is real, and it affects everyone.
Alphabetize the options on menus.
An Ordered Menu is a Beautiful Thing
I’ve made it clear what I’m driving at: There are hundreds of commands in modern apps and I would like them ordered for faster, more efficient, more intuitive usage. The most universal ordering for any language is its alphabet. Since these apps are primarily in English, the menus should follow that order for maximum intuitive use, but obviously a menu can be ordered according to any alphabet depending on the language.
Okay, complaint made. Now let’s talk solution. And would it really help?
Yes. We’ll prove it right now.
Let’s go back to our Outlook right-click menu and see what the difference would be if we ordered the menu options. See graphic below. On the left is the standard unsorted list of options, captured from my screen. On the right, I did some image-editing and listed all the same options alphabetically.
What if I tell you to right-click an email and select the “Print to PDF” command? On the left — the current unsorted menu list, you look through it, then you have to look again, and again. It’s not there. Are you sure? Or did you miss it? You can’t ever be certain because there is no order at all. A quick glance at the right ordered menu and immediately you know the option isn’t available. Time to look elsewhere.
Now what if you were looking for Delete? Well, you’d have to scroll all the way down on the current menu. What’s it doing at the bottom like it begins with an X, Y, or Z? Heck if I know. Heck if you know. Heck if ANYONE knows. Alphabetize it and you find it, or you know it’s not there — AND definitively. With an unsorted menu, you have no idea.
Think about it: we’re wandering through those unordered menus across all apps. We’re wasting our gray matter’s memory, our biological RAM with all these internal micro-mini-maps for where options are. Of course we can memorize quick-keys, but what about when searching for an option that doesn’t have a quick-key shortcut? Either wonder and wander, or off to the search bar for help.
By now I hope you’re getting on board with what I feel deserves to be a movement across the entire app development, design, and UI UX spectrum.
Alphabetize the options on menus.
Why not? It’s easy enough, and it will make every app that exists — yes, I argue it would affect every single one — easier to use.
There may have been a time, way back in the early days of computing, when functions were grouped by how quickly they needed to be accessed. Or they were collected by similar effect. Or there were so few it didn’t really matter. Back when the only commands under Edit were copy, cut, and paste — okay, fine. No huge deal if three options are unsorted. But apps are now littered with dozens of options and sub-menus and more — all in no order at all.
Whatever the reason for unordered menu options, that time has passed. Now there are hundreds of functions, and they should be ordered.
Alphabetize the options on menus.
Here is my message for the entire world: Sort your menus alphabetically. It’s easy. It makes the using the app intuitive and more efficient. There is no downside. Thank you for considering it.
Alphabetize the options on menus.
#ui #uideveloper #uidesigner #ux #uxdesign #uxuidesign #appdeveloper #developer #graphicdesign #uiux
BONUS ROUND: As I was writing this, I remembered a semi-funny story from my working past involving the lack of alphabetization and a cascade of workplace drama. Perhaps that experience plays a part in my argument for sorted lists. The anecdote doesn’t have much to do with UI UX but it is a cautionary tale for graphic designers. Here it is if you’re curious. (Links to another Linkedin post..)
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
