Pie Menus or Linear Menus, Which Is Better?

Abstract

This paper is about a continuing investigation aiming to find o ut which menu type is more useable on a web site or application. This paper specifically compares pie menus with li near menus. Although other researchers have investigated similar themes it is felt that there is still not enough knowle dge regarding the various effects of different menu types, including their positioning on a screen. An empirical approach using an experiment to test the effectiveness and user satisfaction of a pie menu and a linear menu is described in de tail. Four tasks were administered to experimental participants under each menu design in a within users experimen tal design. Overall task time, number of errors and participants' subjective opinions were measured. The data were statistically analysed. There were no statistically significant results for task times and errors. However, subjective opinions were overall statistically significant, suggesting a preferenc e for the pie menu by participants. These results are interesting for all web designers, user interface designers and developers. The issues being investigated are rather complex, b ecause there is no clear pattern of results to suggest a categorical ‘best design’. These results add to the current kno wledge in existence regarding menu types and to the wish of understanding better the issues involved with menu types.