I've never understood the benefits of a pie menu in regular computing.
They've always seemed difficult to read (my eyes travel linearly easily, but following around a circle is non-intuitive), and similarly difficult to click. Even using a gamepad joystick, I often find myself accidentally selecting a neighbor of what I meant to pick, because I wasn't getting the angle exactly right, or inadvertently relaxed the joystick as I clicked the button to confirm.
Keyboard shortcuts, or just regular linear context menus, have always seemed a lot faster and easier to use, respectively, on the desktop. On game consoles I can understand that they're more useful because you don't have a keyboard or mouse... but even then it's more a question of being the least-bad alternative when you really need to instantly select between 8 alternatives.
Am I missing a context where the usability of a pie menu is superior?
They've always seemed difficult to read (my eyes travel linearly easily, but following around a circle is non-intuitive), and similarly difficult to click. Even using a gamepad joystick, I often find myself accidentally selecting a neighbor of what I meant to pick, because I wasn't getting the angle exactly right, or inadvertently relaxed the joystick as I clicked the button to confirm.
Keyboard shortcuts, or just regular linear context menus, have always seemed a lot faster and easier to use, respectively, on the desktop. On game consoles I can understand that they're more useful because you don't have a keyboard or mouse... but even then it's more a question of being the least-bad alternative when you really need to instantly select between 8 alternatives.
Am I missing a context where the usability of a pie menu is superior?