Menus, Animated or Static

[Bamse]

I know a lot of people like animated menus, but I just find them annoying. O.K they look good the first time but after that they just get on my nerves, especial long ones, like the menus on The Mummy Returns.

[Bapapapa]

Static menus for me. The animated ones make it difficult to read when ordering your food.

[Dave B]

Depends on the web site in question ;)

Dave

[kcxdev]

oops - grrrrrr , thought you were on about websites there!

not too fussed - as long as it works :)

[TimJBart]

surely he means dvd menus

[Bapapapa]

http://www.bapapapa.btinternet.co.uk/rainfroread.gif

[kcxdev]

Originally posted by TimJBart
surely he means dvd menus

yep, he sure does but dave put me a bit off track :mad: :D maybe this should be in the dvd forum then?

[Sputnik]

Moving to DVD and Movie Forum then :p

Personally, I like not-too-long-but-still-flashy menus like ... ummm .... Alien. And I quite like static ones with a tiny animated bit just to make it DO something (like Pulp Fiction!). Static menus can seem boring, but I prefer them when done well.

For example ... The Godfathers have a shot from the film that just loops, but you can use the buttons straight away, you don't wait for it to finish doing its business. Then there's a little taste of the first-rate soundtrack :clap: And as a bonus, each time you go to the main menu, the shot is different (unless you look at it three or so times :p )

[lycanthrope on the loose]

holy grail SE menus :D

[pjn]

I dislike having to wait for the flashy menus to do their thing before you can move on i.e. enemy at the gates.

[Vinyl-Pants]

I think all the Bond menus are really good - that's how all DVDs should be - flashy, well animated and well thought out but crucially, short.

[Robby]

Enemy at the Gates has to be one of the worst offenders. Not particularly brilliant but they're too flippin long. And when the film keeps cutting out because of the stoopid deleted scenes it takes even longer to get back into the movie. I wasn't impressed.:mad:

[NexusSheep]

Animated menus are only good if they're well-designed and not pretentiously long. No matter how flash the actual design is, I would get bored if forced to view a long sequence, over and over again. (With no option to skip).

I am particularly fond of the animated menu system featured on Ginger Snaps (R1) and Girl, Interrupted (static (I think), but accompanied by a beautiful film score). And The Blair Witch Project animated menus make my spine tingle every time.

Those are just a few examples of menu systems where it is obvious that some care and attention has gone into the design, IMHO.

[SqueakyG]

Static menus look lifeless and boring, so I like it when they have a small level of animation. Transitions are a different matter though. I don't want an animated transition to take more than 2 or 3 seconds, ESPECIALLY the opening animation that leads to the main menu. If I have to wait more than 10 or 15 seconds before the menu is usable, then the menu is not performing its function properly.