What is the best menu metaphor for silverlight line-of-business apps?

Question

So I'm porting an application from WPF to Silverlight and I have realized that there is no standard Menu control.

So I look around and find some third-party controls that emulate the menu control, like this one at codeplex:

alt text http://www.deviantsart.com/upload/1adt6b3.png

But then I decided to take advantage of this situation and think of some new metaphors besides the standard menu we have been using since Windows 3.0, e.g. I like the following enabled/disabled buttons for a small number of choices, which also work well as a vertical stack, and will try to integrate a drop-down button idea to allow it to hold the number of nested choices that a standard menu control could hold:

alt text http://www.deviantsart.com/upload/1bbtg9l.png

What is the best application navigation menu metaphor you have seen or used in a Silverlight line-of-business application?

Answer 1

Personally, I like the style of Apple's CoverFlow.

You can load various screens in each of the CoverFlow "panels", show the Active panel in the center, and tightly pack the other panels to the left and right.

You gain the ability to allow the user to see their other panels while working on the active one...and you can add a little flair when the user switches between the panels.

Answer 2

How about the Office Ribbon?

http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2009/01/20/ribbon-control-for-silverlight.aspx
http://www.divelements.co.uk/net/controls/sandribbonsl/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa973809.aspx