Researching Menus

The Questions I would like to ask is:
  How do you do your research when designing for new game menus on devices?

Me personally I write down all the things I would like on a particular menu screen, and then I go to check what others have done and refine my basic layout/design with what I like and dislike from my trials. However I have choices in which other apps and games I can investigate. Do I check out the most popular games, thinking that being most popular means they must have done the best job... right??? Only.. Well I do not personally believe that in of itself.

Still I also have the option of checking out the games I already own. This is the option I tend to go for. In fact i refine my list even more to the games I have enjoyed myself. This has the benefit that the games I want to check out I don't have to go find and download, it also tends to mean that I already know which games have menus that do something similar to my needs.

Once I have played with several other apps menu pages, I finish out my own and hopefully make them feel not just better than if I had not done the research, but also I hope to improve on the designs I liked most in other games. This gives me a lot of confidence in my New menu designs.

Laters
Da Voodoochief