Adobe Encore DVD: In the Studio

Menu Button Routing and Numbering

This chapter has focused on creating the visual appearance of menus, with buttons and animation and highlights, and has not yet addressed actually using these menus and buttons to link together the DVD navigation. But there still is one form of navigation that applies to the appearance of menus: the routing between menu buttons when you navigate within the menu using the DVD remote control.

TIPButton Routing Approaches

Surprisingly, as you explore a variety of commercial DVDs, you will find varying opinions on the best or most user-friendly way to lay out button routing on a menu. This is especially true if the buttons are scattered somewhat randomly on the menu, but is even an issue when the buttons are laid out in a rectangular grid.

One consideration is whether you regard the buttons as laid out in a two-dimensional map that is navigated randomly from button to button (i.e., Play Movie, Slide Show, and Credits), or whether you regard the buttons as a consecutive list that happens to be wrapped around to fit on the menu (i.e., Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 through 8). For example, the Right button might cycle around within the same row in a grid (in 2-D), or wrap from the end of one row to the beginning of the next (consecutively through a list of buttons). Or on the bottom line of a grid, the Down button might wrap around up to the top line (in 2-D), or move to the next button to the right (as a list of buttons).

You may then want to use different ...