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'splode-out boxes

Like a dropdown, only not as linear.
  (+6, -2)
(+6, -2)
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A drop-down box presents you with a list of options. If the number of options exceeds 8 or so, you're likely to have to navigate an embedded scrollbar in order to find your desired choice (assuming it's even there).

A 'splode-out box works in much the same way, only it splays the possible choices in an ordered circle around the box.

When you pick an option, they all desplode back in again.

For really large groups of options, the 'splode-out box can be implemented in the form of a tree, which can be navigated by collapsing/expanding out into each new set of choices.

Alternately, a 'grow-on-mouseover' option might provide more room in which to pack the different options.

zen_tom, Sep 11 2006

Visual display ideas http://www.edwardtu...om/tufte/books_vdqi
most excellent books [xenzag, Sep 11 2006, last modified Sep 12 2006]

Pie Menu Central https://web.archive...ww.piemenus.com:80/
Webpage of Don Hopkins, pie menu advocate [wiml, Sep 12 2006]


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Annotation:







       It's a nice idea, but it pobably already exists - check in the Tufte Books on systems of visual display. see link. Like the idea of mouse growing info (+)
xenzag, Sep 11 2006
  

       you obviously didn't get as far the "diagrams that waken the dead" section then....
xenzag, Sep 11 2006
  

       It's implode, not desplode.
BJS, Sep 11 2006
  

       Surely for really large sets of options the normal method of sub-division into groups of sub-options can handle it? ... Or are you suggesting a 3D Bulge of options to stick out from the monitor?
Dub, Sep 12 2006
  

       Someone suggested this before (different name, of course), and someone else linked to some such UI element. Don't recall seeing anything like that in the Tufte books, but of course, I may have been asleep at the time.
DrCurry, Sep 12 2006
  

       "Pie menus" predate Tufte's books, actually. (Actually, I think most of the stuff in Tufte's books is examples of pre-existing design.) Linky.
wiml, Sep 12 2006
  

       //a 3D Bulge of options to stick out from the monitor// - no, you're right, overloading a control with various options normally means you ought to split the thing into sub-divisions using a taxonomy of some kind - but - I do like the idea of having an interactive 3d display. There was recently announced some form of fancy 3d telly. Being able to manipulate a projected 3d reality can only be a logical step after that.   

       And [BJS] I don't think implode fits the bill here, and desplode just sounds better. I figure in the realms of computerised abstraction and representation, we deserve to allow ourselves a certain amount of creative leeway. As it happens, having thought about it, I think I prefer the term unsplode.
zen_tom, Sep 12 2006
  

       Well, why even use standard english lettering then?   

       Displode is a real word... it means explode.
BJS, Sep 12 2006
  

       Duck! they've added new features to the word-processor
Dub, Sep 14 2006
  


 

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