According to the present invention, methods, data structures, and computer-readable media for processing input to a telephone having an interactive user interlace are disclosed. A telephone user inputs commands through buttons and keys on an interactive user interface. A selection made from a menu on the telephone is detected. The menu can be a collection of options, features or commands corresponding to physical context-sensitive soft keys or a line keys. A message based on the menu selection is created and passed to a menu processing object. If a soft key is pressed, the menu processing object is a soft key processing object. An event based on the menu selection is also created. It is then determined which mode from the numerous modes available on the phone is presently active or has focus. Once the active mode that presently has focus is determined, an appropriate menu label set and segment display is displayed on the display monitor.