Guidelines for menu length and item order in linear menus

• For beginners, menus should be kept short. If item names are longer than one word, menus should not contain more than 5-8 items.
• Longer menus are possible if items are grouped or have a natural sequence (numbers, dates, etc.)
• Items should be grouped according to rules of the task domain, and separated by whitespace or horizontal lines (Parkinson et al., 1985).
• For beginners: menu items that will be frequently used by most users should go to the top of the menu
• If multiple selections are possible, then frequently-selected combinations of items should be kept closely together (or otherwise increased in size)
• "Dangerous" items should not be collocated with frequently used items.
• (As a final rule): use alphabetic, chronological or numerical order, or group according to similarity of items (e.g., position "save as" next to "save")
• Possibly use pie menus, which are superior to pull-down menus for beginners.