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Don't quite understand why not more mobile apps have a radial menu. Seems like a reasonable choice for one-thumb controls.

by k__ 2y ago

j45 2y ago
Agree, it's very handy and natural .. also existed in many forms. The lack of seeing this may be an patent issue where a patent for a radial menu needs to be invalidated. Pie menus existed back in the 60's, before the patents, lots of examples in this thread. And for what it's wroth, I'm glad this thing exists, because people should be able to see it and say 'oh yeah, this is like the buttons on my remote control"
ks2048 2y ago
I'd guess one issue is the number of items. Radial probably only works for 6 or less. With a scrollable list, any number would work (And many popups have a variable number of options).
jandrese 2y ago
One downside is your thumb is always going to obscure at least one of the options.
- viraptor 2y ago
  You don't need to make it a full circle. Fan menus are also good. https://cuppalabs.github.io/angular-fan-menu/ https://cuppalabs.github.io/angular-fan-menu/
  - jandrese 2y ago
    This assumes the phone knows what angle your finger is coming in from. Even if you assume it is coming in from the bottom half that introduces problems when the hit point is near the top of the screen.
    - viraptor 2y ago
      You can ask which hand is being used. It doesn't have to span the whole screen either. It's used in games and works just fine in practice.
varispeed 2y ago
Radial menu for some reason triggers my OCD. It feels out of place, where all the menus are square. If this was an option I would have that turned off. It is also obscuring whatever there is around the cursor. Reminds me of autocompletes where they cover the line below that has information I need to see whilst typing. So annoying. It's a big no for me.
szszrk 2y ago
In the happy wild times of custom ROMs frenzy on Android (around versions 2.6-4), there was plenty of such attempts. Many devs included them directly in ROM by default. Unfortunately, all I saw were rather dirty hacks that only kinda worked.

Don't quite understand why not more mobile apps have a radial menu. Seems like a reasonable choice for one-thumb controls.

by k__ 2y ago

Don't quite understand why not more mobile apps have a radial menu. Seems like a reasonable choice for one-thumb controls.

j45 2y ago

Agree, it's very handy and natural .. also existed in many forms. The lack of seeing this may be an patent issue where a patent for a radial menu needs to be invalidated. Pie menus existed back in the 60's, before the patents, lots of examples in this thread. And for what it's wroth, I'm glad this thing exists, because people should be able to see it and say 'oh yeah, this is like the buttons on my remote control"

ks2048 2y ago

I'd guess one issue is the number of items. Radial probably only works for 6 or less. With a scrollable list, any number would work (And many popups have a variable number of options).

jandrese 2y ago

One downside is your thumb is always going to obscure at least one of the options.

viraptor 2y ago
You don't need to make it a full circle. Fan menus are also good. https://cuppalabs.github.io/angular-fan-menu/ https://cuppalabs.github.io/angular-fan-menu/
- jandrese 2y ago
  This assumes the phone knows what angle your finger is coming in from. Even if you assume it is coming in from the bottom half that introduces problems when the hit point is near the top of the screen.
  - viraptor 2y ago
    You can ask which hand is being used. It doesn't have to span the whole screen either. It's used in games and works just fine in practice.

varispeed 2y ago

Radial menu for some reason triggers my OCD. It feels out of place, where all the menus are square. If this was an option I would have that turned off. It is also obscuring whatever there is around the cursor. Reminds me of autocompletes where they cover the line below that has information I need to see whilst typing. So annoying. It's a big no for me.

szszrk 2y ago

In the happy wild times of custom ROMs frenzy on Android (around versions 2.6-4), there was plenty of such attempts. Many devs included them directly in ROM by default. Unfortunately, all I saw were rather dirty hacks that only kinda worked.