TIL: Web designers use Hamburger menus, Meatball menus, and Döner menus, but not Donner menus

Answers for Globle, Chronogram, and Metazooa from Nov 20 - Nov 26

The Trainwreck Labs Newsletter

Coming to your inbox every Monday with educational fun-facts and all the answers to Trainwreck Labs games from the past week.

This week, we have…

  • A fun fact inspired by Trainwreck Labs players

  • Answers to last week's games

  • Game updates

TIL: Web designers use Hamburger menus, Meatball menus, and Döner menus, but not Donner menus

A historical reenactment scene depicting the Donner party on a snowy mountain pass, dressed in 19th-century pioneer attire, eating döner sandwiches. Image generated by DALL-E.

In the 1970s and 1980s, employees at Xerox PARC developed the first ever graphical user interface, or GUI. Before the GUI, users interacted with computers using the command line, like software engineers and movie hackers still do today. Because of Xerox, users could for the first time navigate a representation of the operating system using the computer mouse 🐁

Along with the mouse came desktop icons, and when there were too many icons to fit on the primitive monitor, the collapsible menu. To figure out what the menu should look like, a designer named Norman Cox and his team experimented with arrows and lines of different length before settling on the iconic (pun intended) 3 bar Hamburger menu. According to Cox, “There was never a question as to how many lines, since 2 lines looked like an ‘equal’ sign, and 4 lines were visually too many. Three lines were the perfect number.”

In the years since, as user interfaces have gotten more complex, the Hamburger menu was joined by other food-based designs such as the Kebab and Meatballs menus. The new addition most similar to the Hamburger menu is the Döner menu, whose name is inspired by the Turkish döner sandwich. The funnel shape of the Döner menu makes it perfect for lists that include different options for filtering, like you might see in Microsoft Excel.

“Know Your Menu” image from Twitter/X user @MichaelBabich

But, as one member of the Trainwreck Labs Discord server pointed out this week, the Döner menu should never be confused with the Donner menu. If you can’t help but wonder what would have happened if the Donner party had had a delicious menu of döners instead of, well, each other, check out the image above created by DALL-E.

Connor Brooke. (2015-03-09). The Story Behind the Infamous Hamburger Icon. Business 2 Community. Retrieved 2023-11-26, from https://www.business2community.com/brandviews/activemobi/story-behind-infamous-hamburger-icon-01176772 

Answers to last week's games

Monday, November 20 to Sunday, November 26.

Globle

  • Nov 20 France

  • Nov 21 Eq. Guinea

  • Nov 22 Mozambique

  • Nov 23 Brazil

  • Nov 24 Ethiopia

  • Nov 25 Madagascar

  • Nov 26 Grenada

  • Nov 27 Play now!

Globle: Capitals

  • Nov 20 Port Louis

  • Nov 21 Victoria

  • Nov 22 San Marino

  • Nov 23 Palikir

  • Nov 24 Bandar Seri Begawan

  • Nov 25 Moroni

  • Nov 26 Harare

  • Nov 27 Play now!

Chronogram

  • #233 Joseph Stalin

  • #234 Immanuel Kant

  • #235 Jean-Paul Sartre

  • #236 Ho Chi Minh

  • #237 Robert Oppenheimer

  • #238 Arthur Conan Doyle

  • #239 Louis XIV

  • #233 Play now!

Fictogram

  • #1 Oskar Matzerath

  • #2 Lex Luthor

  • #3 Troy Maxson

  • #4 Bart Simpson

  • #5 Cruella De Vil

  • #6 Jon Arbuckle

  • #7 Light Yagami

  • #8 Play now!

Metazooa

  • #112 Mongoose

  • #113 Sea clam

  • #114 Mussel

  • #115 Pangolin

  • #116 Zebra

  • #117 Chipmunk

  • #118 Swordfish

  • #119 Play now!

Metaflora

  • #51 Breadfruit

  • #52 Tobacco

  • #53 Fern

  • #54 Chickpea

  • #55 Flax

  • #56 Hop

  • #57 Hemp

  • #58 Play now!

Forgeous

"Head of the Madonna" by Franciabigio

Forgery of week, from Nov 22
83% Accurate

Play Forgeous for Nov 27.

Franciabigio. (1509). Head of the Madonna. [Oil paint on panel]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2023-11-27, from https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437608](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437608

Game Updates

Fictogram is live! Thank you to everyone that volunteered to be a beta tester last week. There game has already featured a fun mix of familiar and famous fictional figures. I’m thrilled to see how much players have been enjoying it so far and I’m proud to add it to the Trainwreck Labs portfolio.

As well, some new animals and plants were added to the Meta games this week, including some tough, unique species like tardigrades and sea sponges. Here’s a tip: If you find that none of your guesses are getting you closer to the answer, use a hint! Exchanging 3 guesses to reveal a rank may seem like a steep cost, but in some situations, it’s almost certainly worth it.

Finally, the long awaited Discord login for Globle is finally available, but unfortunately a bug affecting players’ stats crept in as well. If your current streak seems much higher than it should be, respond to this email and let me know!

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Thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of your week!