Menu Flap

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

Hi all,
before I put it into an HIG, I wanted to discuss with you a certain UI element 
that Kontact Touch uses:
The element I'm talking about is the "Menu Flap". The thing that most screens 
in Kontact Touch have on their left side. It works pretty much like the 
drawers we already use on the Activity Screen and in Files & Co.: Pull it out 
from the side and it reveals several menu entries, optionally with sub menus.
This is certainly not something every App should use, because it is merely a 
way of making a complex application manageable on a mobile/touch device. Apps 
that manage to actually reduce complexity to a point where a menu is not 
necessary anymore simply don't need it. However, if an application is complex 
enough to warrant a menu but still not too complex for a mobile device, this 
type of  menu is still more touch-friendly than traditional desktop menus and 
therefore preferable. Additionally it fits well with our drawer concept.
And I know that this feature was designed iteratively with user testing, so 
it's somewhat proven.

Disclaimer: I don't think Kontact Touch is the perfect mobile PIM suite. 
Personally I wouldn't try to stuff all features of a desktop PIM suite (one 
which is among the most feature-rich ones I know) into a mobile version in the 
first place. But I know that the team behind Kontact Touch specifically had the 
task to create a mobile version with every feature that the desktop version 
had. And they managed pretty well to make this at least moderately usable.

Therefore I would not want to see other applications with menus as full as 
some of those in Kontact Touch, but even with only a fraction of the features, 
the Menu Flaps would still make them easier to handle.

So what do you think? What is your experience with Menu Flaps? Do you think 
other applications could make good use of them as well?

- Thomas