Questions tagged [mouse]
Questions relating to the use of the common pointing device.
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Why is the mouse cursor slightly tilted and not straight?
Is this a legacy thing or does a tilted cursor serve a purpose? I can tell that the angle provides a totally vertical left edge which helps when highlighting text but what else apart from that?
EDIT: ...
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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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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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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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Should double click be avoided in web applications?
I find that double click is a great gesture that could be successfully used in graphical interfaces but for some reason has negative connotation on the web. Should it be avoided at all costs?
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Are there any recent studies of the "Keyboard vs Mouse"-issue?
Back in the late 80's, Apple Human Interface concluded that the mouse is faster than the keyboard, objectively. But also that every test person subjectively thought that the keyboard was faster.
...
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What is the expected timeframe of a double click?
In the web application, the user draws a polygonal area on a map each click setting a vertex. A double click allows the user to finish the area. Due to technical circumstances, I have to detect double ...
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Should I use the terminology left/right click?
When instructing users which mouse button to click an element with, it seems standard practice to use the phrase 'left/right click':
To download the file, 'right click' the link and choose 'Save ...
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How do you use an icon to represent 'click once' (not twice) [closed]
I need to teach my users to use issuu.com's interface -- click once to zoom in.
If they double click, it zooms in then out again. I can't change issuu's component so want to add something on my web ...
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When is it a good idea to perform actions on mouse-down *as opposed to click/mouse-up*?
I've grown used to the GUI paradigm of pre-select on mouse-down, action on mouse-up. In fact, I rely on it, sometimes canceling an unwanted action after mouse-down by dragging outside of the click ...
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Who invented the blinking cursor
I was wondering who invented the blinking of a cursor, because I was just thinking if it wouldn't blink the UI would be a lot less responsive.. so this must have been one of the first signs of ...
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Why does the mouse cursor switch direction over line numbers in programming IDEs?
When you mouse over line numbers in IDEs, such as Visual Studio or Notepad++, the mouse cursor is flipped horizontally. I can't think of a reason this would be a ubiquitous user interface decision. ...
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Is Shift+Click for item selection a historical mistake?
I recently encountered a proof of concept demonstration which used the mouse to "drag and select" multiple items in a list.
The current, widely accepted solution for multiple item selection is to ...
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When is double-clicking appropriate for the web?
I recently saw a website that required the user to double-click an item in a scrolling list to 'open' it for editing. It surprised me, as I don't usually think double-click is appropriate for websites,...
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How can I make it obvious that a page element is to be hovered over?
On my webpage I have five boxes containing the names of each step in a five step process. When the user hovers over one of the boxes, it expands and shows text explaining that process.
How can I ...
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When to use reversed/mirror arrow cursor?
Is there an established pattern for when to use a reversed (right-pointing) arrow? I most frequently notice it in Outlook on part--but not all--of messages in my inbox:
My Google-fu failed at finding ...
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Who created the Mac Mickey pointer cursor?
I just found out why the mouse cursor is slightly tilted*, and asked myself why the pointer cursor is a little Mickey hand. Do you guys know why is it like this and who invented it?
Related Question: ...
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Why are keyboards, mice designed to make sound when pressed and clicked?
Why are PC keyboards designed to be audible when they are pressed? That, IMHO, is a totally unnecessary thing as it generates noise that might disturb a peer who is studying nearby.
The other thing ...
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Is there any research available about the speed of working with a mouse vs. working with a trackpad?
I ask this because of a friend who never hooks up a mouse to his laptop because he claims he can work just as fast with a trackpad as with a mouse.
My personal experience is the other way around. I ...
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Which is more important, less mouse distance to travel or visual consistency?
I have an interface that I am currently working on that asks the user to make a choice of a single item. These items are divided into 3 separate categories and the client has insisted that each ...
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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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Multiple Monitors and screen corners
Most people in my workplace have multiple monitors with the primary monitor being to the left of the secondary one, and I have noticed that they have trouble closing applications.
Generally, the ...
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Why are different cursors used when hovering over buttons in Gmail?
In the Gmail interface they are not consistent in which cursor they use on button/link hover.
They use the "hand" pointer for:
Links in the sidebar(mail, contacts, inbox, starred etc..)
The mails ...
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What are the costs of forcing a switch between mouse and keyboard?
If a user is entering text at a keyboard, then is forced to use their mouse for something (e.g. clicking a button in a modal dialog), what are the time and cognitive costs of that? Similarly, when ...
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Why do Macs only have one mouse button?
Why do Apple Macintoshes only have one mouse button? It seems useful to have at least a second one for options that aren't regularly used.
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Should the middle mouse button close tabs?
Most modern web browsers now close tabs when the middle mouse button is clicked on them, is this an expected behavior for other applications where tabs cans can be opened, closed and changed whilst ...
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What is the purpose behind mouse acceleration?
Windows XP enables it by default, I don't know about vista or 7, in Mac OS X you have to buy a shareware to remove both mouse acceleration AND accelerated scrolling.
Why are those things always ...
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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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Any cheat sheet available that shows UX match between mouse events and touch events?
I am supposed to make a web App UI Design which can be used through PC and Tablet. I am looking for a cheatsheet or link where mouse events and touch events are matched?
Eg. A mouse click on PC is ...
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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 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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Is there any research into the cost of switching between using a keyboard and a mouse?
My intuition and own experience tells me keyboard shortcut keys can be faster than using the mouse. However, some tasks like browsing the internet or a folder hierarchy truly benefit from using a ...
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Easiest cursor move?
In relation to making a pie-menu.
I've tried finding research on this, but to no avail.
My reasoning is this: Put the most used features at the easiest places (although putting opposites.. opposite ...
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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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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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Should web mega-menus that open OnClick close OnClick or Mouseout?
I have been doing some research on this site regarding whether a mega menu on a web site should activate/deactivate via hover or click.
I found a question with good answers regarding actuating the ...
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Hide controls on a touch enabled device and only show them if someone uses a mouse?
We're building a responsive web site and we're having a discussion about how to display controls on a map. The theory is that people with touch-enabled devices do not need to see zoom sliders because ...
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Shading buttons darker than the normal state vs. highlighting
While coding up pieces of a website, I was puzzled as to why the designer chose a hover state that is a shade darker than its normal state. It seems logical to me that a rollover state should be a ...
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How to inform user that he can use mouse wheel to interact with an object?
On a website I have a map-like gizmo and list-like object. Both has their controls - the map has a google-map-like zoom giozmo and the list has simplified scroll bar. But both can be navigated using ...
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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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So how big is the mouse pointer?
In the research of creating a design standard for touch applications, the size of the average finger pad comes up as an important figure (1cm x 1cm)
But what about the interaction method we have been ...
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What is the optimal position for a right click menu?
We're in the middle of designing a web application with a right click menu, and I was thinking where to position it relative to the position of the cursor.
There are different solutions:
Solution 1 ...
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Why have two mouse buttons when one is sufficient?
Alternatively, why have only one mouse button when you can fit two into the same space?
This is a question that a friend asked me during one of those silly Mac vs PC arguments that still happen for ...
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Is it OK for scrolling interactions to not scroll content?
This is a general question about scrolling behavior with a trackpad or mouse. I've been discussing this with my peers, and it's become quite a debate.
Our conversations are specifically about the ...
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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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Double-click on toggle buttons
I've witnessed a lot of old people double clicking on hyperlinks and buttons when a single click would suffice. This odd behavior would be troublesome for buttons that toggle a state. Take for example ...
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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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UI design with MINIMUM number of clicks
Project : ASP.NET with C#
Client side : JavaScript and jQuery
Consider the scenario,
I have a number of user to use the software. I will classify them into different groups. Then, I would like to ...
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7
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How can I lead users to and use an unusual navigation
So, I'm making someone a high concept website. Basically, there's one of those old fashioned television sets with circular nobs, like those on a stove, to change the channel. You turn the nob, it ...
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6
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What's the term for imprecision in mouse and touchscreen clicking?
I've noticed in some tasks that require very fine precision with the mouse, that the act of physically clicking the button is sometimes enough to move the mouse. In an extreme case, I watched an ...
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