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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: DOUBLE RIGHT-CLICK!!!
From:       Maurizio Colucci <seguso.forever () tin ! it>
Date:       2004-08-18 17:34:45
Message-ID: 200408181934.46362.seguso.forever () tin ! it
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On Wednesday 18 August 2004 17:01, Matthias Welwarsky wrote:
> On Wednesday 18 August 2004 16:29, Maurizio Colucci wrote:
> > On Wednesday 18 August 2004 16:15, Karlos wrote:
> > > I had an idea for KDE, put the ability to perform an double right
> > > click.. for example on a file, and it generates an event like open its
> > > propieties, rename it, or something like this (let the user choose the
> > > event?). Please answer me with your opinion!
> >
> > This feature is not discoverable. Only complex apps like Maya should use
> > more than one button. For the general user, discoverability is crucial. A
> > desktop environment should IMHO go in the opposite direction.
>
> It is not necessary for every feature to be discoverable. 

Not necessary, but in a desktop environment it is highly desirable, especially 
since any nondiscoverable feature can be made discoverable by adding a button 
the way described above.

> I keep saying 
> that with software usability, there's nothing really intuitive, because
> it's not in our genes. There are only things you got used to.

That's true. The point is to find a small (or minimal) set of concepts you 
have to get used to. The right mouse menu is an outdated relic of a time when 
mice were not infrared.

> > I have an opposite idea: let's remove the right button and add a button
> > "show context menu".
>
> Yeah, and horribly break expectations of 90+% of our users. 

It takes 30 seconds to adapt to such an idiom, because they already know the 
"dropdown button" paradigm.

> A "Show Context Menu" button is oxymoronic,
> because to click the button you have to leave 
> the context: your mouse pointer has to travel away from the object you want
> to open the context menu for.

The additional mouse travel is no big deal if the button is big and you have 
an infrared mouse. Having to switch finger can be even more onerous in that 
case. Not to mention the dramatic gain in simplicity: by removing the 
right-mouse button you remove one degree of complexity and you loose nothing. 
(and you make everything discoverable)

As for the oximoron: I didn't mean to actually put one button called "show 
context menu". The button can be more than one, or there can just be an 
alteration in an already existing menu when you select the item (like 
http://logicaldesktop.sf.net).
What is important is to I was just trying to convey the idea of replacing the 
right click popup withmouse travel + click on big button (or buttons).

> There is no such thing as a Zero-Slope learning curve for computer
> illiterates. If you have someone totally unfamiliar with computers and you
> hand him a mouse, he will possibly not even discover that he has to
> point-and-click to activate something. 

But that is a much smaller set of rules to learn.

> And you're not going to activate 
> something by just hovering over it. THAT'd be discoverable, but a miserable
> failure in advanced use.
>
> Face it: There are two ways to operate a compute desktop people are used to
> nowadays (if at all), and that's the Windows way, and the MacOS way. You
> will always have to mimic them for the simple things in order to not scare
> away beginners.

I believe there is another way: make it so easy that you don't need to be 
similar to anything.

> Double-Right-Click is not bad itself, but it is clearly meant for the
> advanced or power user, because it's a kind of accelerator: If you're used
> to it, it helps you do certain tasks faster.

In that sense it can be useful, yes :-)

mau
 
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