On some calculators, the clear button would do a clear entry on one press, and a clear on the second. I think this meant that people tended to press clear a few times, to ensure that everything was cleared. It is possible that three clicks would clear the memory as well.

This is one of those habits that people acquired early on in the use of technology, which has continued despite the change in the technology.

And it is an interesting UX question, because the reality that clicking it multiple times has no additional effect does not change the perception. There are other cases of this, I am sure, but we actually just need to understand that this will happen.

Edit:

There is also the sense of clicking and clicking while I make the decision to move onto something else. It is not then based on habit, but just an attempt to reflect what is going on internally, that I need to clear my mind before I move on.

On some old calculators, the clear button had double duty:

• push once for clear-entry
• push twice for clear-all

I think this meant that people tended to press clear a few times, to ensure that everything was cleared. It is possible that three clicks would clear the memory as well.

This is one of those habits that people acquired early on in the use of technology, which has continued despite the change in the technology.

And it is an interesting UX question, because the reality that clicking it multiple times has no additional effect does not change the perception. There are other cases of this, I am sure, but we actually just need to understand that this will happen.

Edit:

There is also the sense of clicking and clicking while I make the decision to move onto something else. It is not then based on habit, but just an attempt to reflect what is going on internally, that I need to clear my mind before I move on.

On some calculators, the clear button would do a clear entry on one press, and a clear on the second. I think this meant that people tended to press clear a few times, to ensure that everything was cleared. It is possible that three clicks would clear the memory as well.

This is one of those habits that people acquired early on in the use of technology, which has continued despite the change in the technology.

And it is an interesting UX question, because the reality that clicking it multiple times has no additional effect does not change the perception. There are other cases of this, I am sure, but we actually just need to understand that this will happen.

On some calculators, the clear button would do a clear entry on one press, and a clear on the second. I think this meant that people tended to press clear a few times, to ensure that everything was cleared. It is possible that three clicks would clear the memory as well.

This is one of those habits that people acquired early on in the use of technology, which has continued despite the change in the technology.

And it is an interesting UX question, because the reality that clicking it multiple times has no additional effect does not change the perception. There are other cases of this, I am sure, but we actually just need to understand that this will happen.

Edit:

There is also the sense of clicking and clicking while I make the decision to move onto something else. It is not then based on habit, but just an attempt to reflect what is going on internally, that I need to clear my mind before I move on.