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Ask HN: What are your thoughts/experiences with right click menus in web apps

2 points by _Understated_ ↗ HN
I am programming an ASP.NET web application at the moment and part of the functionality is to allow file uploads. It will have drag and drop functionality as one method of uploading and the traditional open file dialog button as another but I am torn on using right-click instead of or in addition to one of the other methods.

Now, we will all be familiar with right-click in a native application at least, however, this isn't something I routinely use in a web application, except on outlook.com (which I think does it quite well). On a tablet, it would be a long click to simulate right click.

I would love to know the thoughts of others that have done it and how the users took to it (if they were even aware of its existence). Also, any examples of it done right (and wrong too!) would be appreciated.

2 comments

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dozzie
Don't do that. My browser on mobile already has its own long-tap menu and has a mode to open link in new tab on long-tap. You'll be interfering with many similar operation modes if you implemented right-click menu in a web application.
brudgers
My opinion is that anything that breaks normal browser behavior is bad. Sure there are special exceptions for exceptional web apps. These are productivity apps that a person lives in all day [e.g. Atom or Gmail]. Living it all day isn't enough to hijack the browser, e.g. Facebook. Though it is worth looking at Facebook for how it handles right clicks on a person's name...as a hover event.

Anyway, custom right click menus are something users can live without. Mental energy and time devoted to their development early on is energy and time that could be devoted to figuring out what somethings users cannot live without. If file upload matters then provide file upload and move on to the next item that matters about that much.

Later on interfaces can be A/B tested.

Good luck.