Hot answers tagged mouse
32
Double-clicking on the web should be avoided because it goes against the general practice of single-clicking links, and would likely be confusing.
Jacob Nielsen says it best:
...double-click must die since it causes novice users great difficulties and since it conflicts with the single-click interaction style of the Web
If your application does a good ...
32
There isn't any pattern common enough to be considered "normal" for this by most people, so it doesn't matter which you choose as long as it makes sense for your application.
The important thing isn't whether it gets darker or lighter on hover. It is that there is some change. Someone using a site isn't going to say "that changed to dark on hover instead ...
22
Let say that you have the more common scenario of dark text and no other part of the design changes on hover and it's the background only, then when you hover, the button should be given a highlight. You're trying to focus on an item - to examine it and therefore it makes sense to brighten it up as if giving it more light to see by. Appearing backlit or ...
14
I think it's more about maintaining conventions and user's general knowledge of those conventions than anything else. Browser/website interaction has been fundamentally different to OS user interface interaction since basically the dawn of the browser.
In native UI's the convention has been to have a solid, non-clickable window area with UI elements akin to ...
11
I don't see the need for any new studies in this area. The issue is that people usually take the results out of context. You can't comparing using a mouse to learning a keyboard command and then using it. Apples and oranges. Let me summarise what we know.
If you don't know the keyboard command, it is usually faster to use the mouse as it has a lower ...
10
1. Is the standard for both Windows and OSX. You should go with this.
Update: (Note that when clicking at extreme bottom of screen it will automatically display as 4,when at extreme right it will display as 3, and at extreme bottom right it displays as 2.)
This seems to make sense, you right click, and are at the top left position of the list of options. ...
10
Option 1 by far.
Please tell them that mouse distance is only one of many UX factors that need considered.
Scan-ability - Knowing that the buttons are always at the bottom will cut out a lot of cognation and time for the user.
Who says the users curser will start from the top? Think about where your curser is right now? is it near the top? or the middle ...
10
What mouse acceleration essentially does is applies a sort of logarithmic scale to the distance moved per milisecond based on the speed you are moving at.
The general concept is that when you are moving the mouse faster, you are trying to move it to a point further away, so acceleration scaled the distance the pointer will move to be even more than you ...
10
Here's the patent for the blinking cursor patent: http://www.google.com/patents/US3531796
According to that, it was invented by Charles A. Kiesling at Sperry Rand. Patent filed Aug 24, 1967, granted Sep 29, 1970. This isn't iron clad proof that it was first invented at that time, but the time seems about right (computers were getting powerful enough that ...
9
The issue is selection. On the desktop we usually select an item and then act on it. On the web, we act on the item without selecting it first - either that, or selection is implied by mouseover (which doesn't let us "select" multiple items). So, whenever we need to select an item explicitly before activating it, or when we need to perform multiple selection ...
8
While it is generally agreed as a rule of thumb that fewer clicks are better, a more important metric is considering how much the user has to think to complete the action. Ten thoughtless clicks are a great leap better than having to perform one confusing click.
As long as the process is simple and requires very little thought, the number of clicks requires ...
7
I think it would be okay for certain uses, particularly if you're considering having an object draggable or highlightable on a single click, then on a double click it could be openned. However I would strongly avoid anchor tags being doubleclicked, or anything that only responds to a double click.
7
Simply put, mouse pointer size doesn't matter very much besides personal preference.
A finger is only as accurate as it is big. A mouse pointer is always accurate to one pixel even if the display icon for it is larger than that. So the issue of size when talking about a mouse isn't nearly as critical as it is for touch.
6
The hand cursor icon is used for controls that provide navigation-like interaction. The regular cursor icon is retained when the interactive items are not for navigation, e.g. command/action buttons.
The distinction between navigation and navigation/action can sometimes be subtle in apps like Gmail, but it is an important one and can drive user expectations ...
6
When I was using Google+ the first time, I noticed that they incorporate double clicks as an integral part of their Circles pages. The page shows a list of people - avatars and names. You can select them, multi-select them, rubberband a marquee to select them, all so that you can add them as a group to one of your circles.
But if you double click on one ...
6
Option 1
The difficult-to-name tri-state checkbox tree:
The Group-level controls auto-change all contained users at once, potentially saving clicks and mental energy during bulk edits. The third state for the checkbox allows for the parent to be partially selected when some but not all kids are selected.
Some drawbacks to this approach:
Tri-state ...
6
No. The only actions with true equivalence in both environments are taps and clicks.
Swipes and drag-and-drops aren't the same, because dragging and dropping is much harder ergonomically, so you wouldn't rely on it as you would with swipes. Swipes don't map to mouse movements either, as you can have nonsemantic mouse movements as the user innocently moves ...
5
To me an icon is meant to be double clicked (due to heavy windows use I would guess). If you want something to indicate action in a single click you should be using a button. The key features of a button are that it appears raised and depresses or makes a sound when you click it each time.
If the users can see or hear the button action on the first click ...
5
First of all consider whether this is the best way to display the content. How often is the content used? How important is the content. If its used often or is very important consider displaying the content in another way.
If you are sure this "on hover" pattern is the correct one to go for then you need to draw attention to it. Generally this effect is ...
5
Key Stroke Modeling(KLM) that is part of GOMS method has some answers regarding this. According to an article by Jeff Sauro:
Card, Moran and Newell brought in hundreds of users and had them complete tasks repeatedly. They decomposed large tasks like typing a letter or using a spreadsheet into millisecond level actions (called operators). They found just ...
5
Agree with discoverability issues. Illustrator application for example uses and "Alt" key to reverse the action (e.g. shape builder > click adds shape and alt+click removes shape). So, perhaps, you can consider a modifier key. Although, if your app is not something that your users use frequently and for long periods of time to do some repetitive tasks it ...
5
There are two problems with this:
It is not compatible with touch devices.
You may be developing for desktop eviroments, but that doesn't mean that the user doesn't use touch to interact with your application.
It is hard to discover.
When you see a button you know you can click it, because it visually tells you that you can click it (by having an icon, a ...
5
I would suggest keeping the sliders even for touch devices.
I was doing some testing recently with someone that has had an iPad for 2 years, and discovered that they did not know that you could pinch to zoom. I'm sure they are not alone in this.
Also, touch devices are often used by people that are physically unable to pinch to zoom, and who rely on the ...
5
I'll put in an answer myself here...
(Hopefully this will inspire to submit more research links...)
Searching the ACM digital library and a few other resources I found a few related articles.
Categorization costs for hierarchical keyboard commands (2011)
by Miller, Denkov and Omanson
Summary
Previous research comparing methods of issuing commands
...
5
The interactions aren't necessarily mapped consistently one-to-one across mediums and devices.
For instance, there is no swipe or pinch(typically) via a mouse. Conversely there's no mouseover or right click via touch.
Furthermore, there's things to consider such as keyboard navigation as well as touch pad navigation.
So, short version is that there is ...
5
Control A should never scroll. Either Control B or nothing.
The scroll should be on the Control B (that the mouse is hovering over), unless Control B is in an inactive Window.
If Control B is in a Window that is inactive (but Control A is active by the fact it has focus) then scrolling over Control B should do nothing.
If the Control B Window is changed to ...
4
Option 1 by a mile.
It looks nicer and the reading speed will be far higher. It's much quicker to take in that all three buttons say exactly the same thing. There is no confusion about whether the third button is an option or a continue button.
With a small target like this continue button the time to move the mouse is dominated by the acceleration and ...
4
See Neilsen's take here: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/interaction-elasticity.html
Note he warns against focusing on the number of clicks - he takes the approach (as Peter of the Corn noted in his post) that it's the ease of clicks that really matters. He also adds that context plays a role in what is acceptable, and that you need a good understanding of ...
4
The optimal position is #1, the top left corner, for text that reads left to right and top to bottom. This positioning allows for the text to be easily read and for the user to move the mouse and their eyes in the same direction that they normally read.
But when the mouse is positioned close to the edge of the viewport the panel should be displayed so as ...
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