I've read suggestions that contextual menu items be arranged in a circle around the mouse cursor when the menu is activated, since Fitz's Law suggests that each target would be easier to hit.
However, I've never seen this in practice. (I can think of a few simple reasons: text is hard to fit in the space afforded by a wedge-shaped target, it's not a standard pattern and is perceived to be too confusing, etc.)
Are the potential benefits just not worth the trade-off? Are there examples that work that I'm unaware of?
Answer
I have seen radial menus few times. I have tested a Firefox addon that arranged contextual menu in a circle. Also it was used in some computer games (Temple of Elemental Evil comes to mind when I think about it). It somehow didn't work.
- It is much easier to scan a list of options (your eyes move top-down) than options arranged in a circle (your eyes must move in many directions).
- Not all options are equal. Some are more important or more frequently used (should be closer to mouse pointer according to Fitz's Law) than others.
- You really have a problem with longer items and subitems. The game I mentioned earlier managed to handle it quite nicely visualy, by rotating all the options around the central point. The problem is that when there are more options, you have to read some of them from down to up, others from left to right and the rest goes from top to down.
I think radial contextual menus can work in specific situations (low number of options, items can be represented as icons without a text, etc.). But generally they're not really a good idea.
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