> It is a fairly common pattern in nav menus to have an indicator -- the unread count or down arrow in this case -- at the top level, but not at the second or third level, and instead rely on simply hovering on the submenu to open the next level.
It's equally common to have an arrow or other indicator next to menu items to indicate that there is a second or third level of items available. Using the menu items in OSX from your own example you can see that items with sub menus have a triangle pointing to the right where the menu will expand. The problem with leaving off these indicators is that some users won't realize there are more options and give up before finding what they are looking for. The menu text must be very clear that there are more options.
> Except one of the most powerful cues, action verbs in button copy.
I agree that button text is a very huge part of interaction as even with visual cues that an item is interactive the text is going to tell you what the action is. That being said we've all seen or used badly designed interfaces where interactive elements have bad labels. Additional visual cues can help to overcome a bad label. Google is rolling out mostly flat designs where interactive elements at least include some gradient or distinct outlines that help show which items are interactive. I find those interfaces to be much easier to navigate than all flat interfaces.
It's equally common to have an arrow or other indicator next to menu items to indicate that there is a second or third level of items available. Using the menu items in OSX from your own example you can see that items with sub menus have a triangle pointing to the right where the menu will expand. The problem with leaving off these indicators is that some users won't realize there are more options and give up before finding what they are looking for. The menu text must be very clear that there are more options.
> Except one of the most powerful cues, action verbs in button copy.
I agree that button text is a very huge part of interaction as even with visual cues that an item is interactive the text is going to tell you what the action is. That being said we've all seen or used badly designed interfaces where interactive elements have bad labels. Additional visual cues can help to overcome a bad label. Google is rolling out mostly flat designs where interactive elements at least include some gradient or distinct outlines that help show which items are interactive. I find those interfaces to be much easier to navigate than all flat interfaces.