Inventions on Adaptable Menu: A TRIZ based analysis

The menu is one of the most widely used elements of a graphical user interface. The objective of a menu system is to provide various commands and functions to the user in an easy way so that the user can just select the desired operation from a given list instead of typing a complex command in the command prompt. There are several aspects of a menu system such as functionality, adaptability, aesthetics, presentation, navigation etc. Each of these factors is important to make a menu system powerful and effective. This article will discuss about the flexibility and adaptability of the menu system. Flexibility and adaptability is one of the desirable features of an advanced menu system.. 1.1 Need for adaptability In a conventional menu system the menu items or options are hard-coded in the computer program. The programmer or developer composes menu items at the time of development. The developer tries to include all options that he feels may be required by the user in future. Although the items are decided from " requirement analysis " and other studies, it is difficult to know the exact need of a user at a future period of time. This leads to inclusion of a lot of items in the menu, which leads to user confusion and frustration. If the developer reduces the number of menu items, there is a greater chance for the user not finding a desired option. If the developer adds all the important items to the menu, the user is confused and frustrated to see a long list of items. This creates a contradiction as the menu should contain maximum number of items to satisfy user requirement and at the same time should contain the minimum number of items to reduce user confusion and frustration. Thus there is a need for adaptable menu that can be changed according to user requirement. The items should change from user to user and from time to time. 1.2 The mechanism of adaptability As we saw above, it is not possible for the developer to add the exact number of menus that a user may need in future. This is not only because it is difficult to predict the future needs but also because the requirement varies for different users at different times. The problem can be addressed by an adaptable menu that can change according to the user requirement. The customization of …