April 10, 2004
fly-out and away
from Sur La Table
Usability issues with fly-out menus aside, I found Sur la Table's implementation intriguing. Looking at this screenshot, you'd think the lack of visual connection would be a problem. But in reality, the act of aiming and there response of appearing is enough to make a connection between menu and submenu.
There are a number of problems, mostly fitts law related (targets too small, distance too great), but this did work better than I would have guessed. Plus if you do click before the menu appears, you land on a good navigation page.
useless fun fact: the author of the uie article now works for Yahoo!