Questions tagged [mouse]
Questions relating to the use of the common pointing device.
110 questions
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Are there common mousing patterns on desktop?
While there's research on eye gaze patterns over screens and paper (the F and Z patterns), I haven't discovered any research on mouse movement patterns on desktop (e.g., are there patterns on the ...
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Vertical direction of the right click context menu options
When the right-click context menu opens, it by default tries to open downward as a drawer from the position of your cursor. When the space below the cursor is not adequate, it flips and opens above. ...
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Solving the mouse tremor problem: using a touchpad as a mouse?
I am posting this question here because I wanted to post it on the Super User stack exchange, but has some overlap with user experience. If more appropriate there, please migrate my post.
When PC ...
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Do accessibility standards (WCAG AA) require a screen reader to announce an HTML element upon mouse hover?
We are using the screen reader NVDA. We have a website that we are trying to make WCAG AA compliant. If you use only a keyboard (no mouse), and use the Tab key to navigate around the page, whenever an ...
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Why is the precision of the cursor position for pointing devices (like mice) limited to one pixel across most UIs?
tl;dr:
Why is cursor position not antialiased by applications, desktop environments, or operating systems? Why don't user interfaces give the ability to localize pointer position with subpixel ...
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Is dragging the mouse with a button pressed not controversial at all?
Not about drag'n'drop specifically, but all kinds of interactions requiring a mouse-button to be pressed while moving the mouse, or dragging while keeping the finger pressed to a touchscreen. ...
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How should mouse sensitivity be represented on the settings screen?
Video games often allow the player to configure mouse sensitivity. What is the most intuitive way to represent this setting in the user interface?
What should the option be called?
If it is numerical:...
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What percent of internet users use mouse back/forward versus the browser back/forward buttons?
I personally almost never use the browser buttons and I imagine it's the same for most tech savvy users but I want to know what the usage patterns are like for the rest of the population. From my own ...
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Is there any working straight or reflected mouse cursor theme? [closed]
OK, it's clear that mouse cursor has it's shape by historical reasons. But since 1995, didn't anybody make usable straight or reflected mouse cursor? MS Word uses reflected mouse cursor sometimes. But ...
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Best practices/rationale for unified vs separate keyboard/mouse navigation of lists?
Context
I'm in the process of designing/implementing a filterable object creation palette with categorized results for a visual content creation application. I'm trying to decide how to handle ...
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Clicker Training - Effects when using computer mouse and keyboard?
I am kinda wondering whether the clicking sound of a computer mouse has a passive or active effect like the one used in clicker trainer.
In clicker training, a trainer would use a sound cue (can also ...
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When to start opening the select list? On mousedown? Or on click? And Why?
Component: select aka. dropdown
Platform/system: web, non-touch device (laptop with trackpad or desktop with a mouse)
Is there a guideline, convention, or some studies done which can help developers/...
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when to use "wait" and when "busy" mouse cursor
I am developing a desktop application with Qt framework. When there is a task running which causes the UI to be blocked for a while, I would like to use a mouse cursor indicating that the user should ...
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How should double-click (to select text) on a space being handled?
When you have a text sentence, you likely know that you can double-click on any word to select it. That is very convenient and I personally use it a lot.
Background
To have a little bit of ...
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Is it easier to move the mouse from right to left or vice versa?
In an ergonomic sense, is it easier to move the mouse from left to right or right to left?
The reason I'm asking is to find out which side to place two modals, the contents of modal A will be dragged ...
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Should a right-click in a desktop application always bring up a context menu?
In most every "modern" desktop application I've used, the right mouse click brings up some sort of context menu. In some though, especially high end engineering applications, right click is used to ...
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Typical mouse hover position - left or right side of the screen?
I'm curious if anyone knows what the typical mouse hover position is for a user browsing the web? I believe it's the right side of the screen, for proximity with scrollbars (and because that's where ...
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Best mouse interaction on knob (dial/rotary controller)
I'm creating a custom skeumorphic dial and I have some doubts about what could be the better way of interacting with it using the mouse, which should be as intuitive and effective as possible.
Right ...
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What's the approppriate term for the window under the mouse cursor?
In an app I'm writing, the user has the choice to apply a given action to either the "focused window", the "topmost window" or the "window that's being pointed by the mouse".
Is there a way to refer ...
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Keyboard shortcuts for special zoom mode
I'm designing an editing program (Mac/Windows) that has a slightly unusual scheme for zooming and controlling the mouse cursor: a normal mode in which the cursor works normally, and a special mode in ...
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Semantic names for shift-click and ctrl(or cmd)-click?
I'm implementing something that uses shift-click and ctrl-click (cmd on the Mac) in the normal way. Shift-click lets you select a range of elements and ctrl-click lets you toggle the selection of ...
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What does the mouse path tell you about your flow
When doing user tests I discovered a recurring mouse path among testers. When asking them during a task to go back to the previous screen, the mouse was 'zig zagging'. The mouse went to the main menu ...
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How long (in milliseconds) is long enough to decide a user is actually hovering over an element?
I'm improving a widget that expands a dropdown list on hover.
One of the customers implementing the widget has requested a delay so we don't just slide up / down the drawer when a user is simply ...
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Why Facebook and Linkedin use a slider to scale/edit users' profile image instead of mouse middle button scrolling?
Our team is working on a product which has a feature that allow users to upload their avatar and edit it. Originally, we would like it to be like google (you can edit the size & position of the ...
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Long press action clue/indicator
On a desktop and touch devices, I'd like to know is there is a way to tell the user that some control could be clicked (one action) and long pressed (another action)?
Real-world example:
We have ...
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Usability of built-in trackpads in laptops
I am wondering if there has been any studies on the usability of trackpads in laptop computers because they have always seem rather awkward to use yet have become standard with laptops. It doesn't ...
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What is the difference between a mouseover and a hoverover? [closed]
I have seen both a 'mouseover' and a 'hoverover' referring to the same thing - but it is not clear if there is a difference.
Is there a functional difference between the two terms, or are they ...
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What is the best way to indicate a web page element has right click functionality? [duplicate]
Normally on the web, a right mouse click makes a browser menu appear.
I am building a rich web application and most UI elements will have context menus with applicable actions on right click.
What ...
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How much the scroll wheel should zoom in and out?
I am creating a application using Game Maker 8 and it has a zoom feature, where you can zoom in and out using the scroll wheel. For now, I am using a simple formula of adding or subtracting 10% of the ...
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What's the best way to refer to a context menu in documentation?
It used to be that you could tell a user (in documentation or in onscreen prompts) to, let's say, "Click a button, or right-click to display a menu."
Nowadays, there are multiple ways to display a ...
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force-click vs secondary click (right click) in OS X?
I've been trying to understand the conceptual difference between a force-click and a secondary click (aka right click) on a Mac.
Conceptually, what is a force click supposed to do? Is there a ...
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Turning knobs with mouse wheel
When presenting (in a simulator) a user interface, that normally uses turning knobs, how should the mouse wheel map to the turning of the drawn knob?
I am looking at a simulator which draws a bunch ...
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Best method(s) to allow closing a popup
I find moving the mouse leftwards from it's normal position more easier. Is it the same for all users or at least for you? If not, what's the best position to keep the close button for a popup. This ...
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How to get users to tab through forms instead of mouse-picking?
Is there a way to teach, persuade or force users to learn to use the Tab and Enter keys to navigate simple forms, instead of clicking the next field with the mouse? This is such a productivity-killer ...
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Using sound effects on Mouse Hover / MouseOver
I'm building an application that is will mostly be used by "novice users". My team wants to add a sound effect to help aid the user understand that something is clickable when they hover over a button....
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What is the viability and alternatives to using a mouse in VR? (oculus rift)
Will many users use a mouse in VR or is this be disconcerting and cause motion-sickness? Or is it just nonsensical to use a mouse in VR.
How would you go about porting the UI/UX of a drag and drop ...
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user interaction: different ways of visualizing data
I have a project which contains a piechart. Every group in the piechart has its key, value, percentage and a description.
Of the ways shown below, which is the best to visualize the data? Is there a ...
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Using mouse scroll wheel to advance carousel; disable scroll up/down page
Is there any empirical data regarding the usability of websites that (for lack of a better word) "hijack" the (vertical) mouse scroll wheel to perform a task other than scroll up/down the page?
My ...
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Why did the mouse beat the light pen, paddle, and other pointing devices?
I recently watched the mother of all demos from 1968 which did an excellent job of showing how computers can be personal.
Something that stood out to me was the mouse. This device has remained ...
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Multi-range Slider for Budget Allocation
I'm currently designing a slider that will be used to allocate a fixed budget to different channels. I posted some shots of the current design below. Right now, it's possible to simply drag the slider ...
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Comparing mouse + Keyboard vs Touch Screen Input Devices?
Is there any research that compares the User Experience of using the mentioned Input Devices ?
Thanks
Edit: Basically for my dissertation i'm planning on creating a usable interface for a voting ...
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Why did Windows add a pointer trail feature?
So Windows has had, for a while now, a pointer trail feature under the visibility section. But that's something I don't understand.
The pointer trail itself is something I find to be annoying, and I ...
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Double click behavior
I have noticed that in some cases the action associated to double click happens after the second mousedown and not after the second mouseup(windows desktop for example). This may make the application ...
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Should Keyboard and Mouse stay next to each other? [closed]
I am looking for some recommendations / papers that claim that a keyboard and a mouse should be placed next to each other.
What about a case where the mouse is a used as an input device and the ...
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Are 12000 dpi laser mice overpowered for the human wrist?
So I've seen laser mice become more and more powerful over time, with newer models supporting increasing levels of "DPI". The latest ones I've seen support up to 12000 dpi.
But what does this mean? ...
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Middle button on Touchpad [closed]
I had never seen live any laptop which touchpad block includes a middle mouse button. It always brings only left and right mouse buttons.
So the question is: what can I do to achieve the effect of ...
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Usefulness of twitter tooltip? [closed]
i was wondering when you hover an element from your twitter profil as 'number of tweets' you have this tooltip comming out.
Why do they need to repeat this information ? Is this for an accessibility ...
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Mouse wheel interaction with nested scrollbars
Nested scrollbars (a scrollable area within another scrollable area) present some unfortunate difficulties, mainly when scrolling trough them with the mouse wheel.
Whether such scrollbars are a good ...
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What is the trend with buttonless mousepads? [closed]
Why is it that every laptop I see in the shops has copied Apple's concept of having no buttons on the mousepad, i.e. buttonless mousepads?
I can't think of a more horrendous usability decision. Every ...
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Is it safe to assume everyone uses / has mouse wheels?
Is it safe to assume all users are aware of using the mouse wheel to scroll and that all users have a mouse wheel on their mouse?
I'm hoping to implement a scrollbar which stays hidden even when you ...
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