Max number of commands in context menu

Question

Guys, from here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh465300.aspx

I'm reading that:

"Context menus can show a maximum of five commands. This limit helps to ensure that the context menu remains uncluttered, usable, and directly relevant to users."

Does it really mean that I cannot have more than five commands in context menu? What is the rationale of actually constraining instead of just suggesting the number of commands being available?

To me, it seems bit unreasonable and bit too constraining.

Answer 1

Yes it can be a tad annoying but that's how they designed it. Based on the thread below, a workaround is to use an HTML/JS flyout:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winappsuidesign/thread/4442fd09-5692-474f-914e-6769e3e10a12

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http://blog.voidnish.com

Answer 2

Pointless, on the verge of stupidity, and as usual, to every constraint there will be workaround, which will do what the developer wants, just the code will be less maintainable. What a dissaster. How could anyone place such a constraint? What if I have mathematical app and I want to have:

Add

Subtract

Multiply

Divide

Modulo

Square

Cube

Sqrt

???????????????????

Cookery app.

Context menu for necessary ingredients? Just five? What if a particular dish requires 10 necessary ingredients? O my God! I just cannot believe in the stupidity of this design.

With this constraint in place I'd have to either have two different context menus, which on its own it's stupid and more cumbersome to the user to use, or use cheap tricks with html/js. What a f**ing dissaster.

I could literally give tens of examples where context menu should have more than 5 items. Idiots. Idiots. Idiots.

Answer 3

Unless your target audience/hardware is predominantly going to be tablets, you should just write a desktop app. Writing a metro app is a very restrictive process compared to writing a full-Windows-app.

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http://blog.voidnish.com