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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: RFC: Restricting mouse in popup menus
From:       "Diego Moya \(a.k.a. TuringTest\)" <turingt () gmail ! com>
Date:       2005-05-18 16:14:00
Message-ID: 11ee04940505180914a7f9c0a () mail ! gmail ! com
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On 18/05/05, Maurizio Colucci <maurizio.colucci@gmail.com> wrote:
> 2005/5/17, Lubos Lunak <l.lunak@suse.cz>:
> > In short, when a popup menu is open, the mouse movement is restricted only to
> > the area of the popup - this allows navigating in the menus only using
> > vertical movement and clicking.
> >
> This improvement is not only good, it is a paradigm shifter. The
> reason is that, with your idea, popup menu become so cheap
> (cognitively) that it starts to make sense to _abolish_ the right
> mouse button, relying on popup menus alone.

I recently have had a similar conversation on the gnome-usability
list. My concern was that in current interfaces the left mouse button
is overloaded with both "selections" (performed with one click) and
"actions" (usually with double-click).

My proposal was to change the paradigm so that the left button always
selects, and the right button has a popup menu similar to that of
yours, with one default action under the mouse and the other commands
being shown only when dragging.

> 
> I'll explain myself better. Imagine a listbox, such as the one in
> konqueror file browser. Currently, left-clicking on a listbox item
> executes the default action (select or open), whereas right-clicking
> gives more options (shows the popup menu). As we know, this creates
> major discoverability problems (people do not try to right-click). The
> obvious solution would be to make the popup menu appear when you click
> the LEFT mouse button, but then it becomes too expensive to execute
> the common action. With your technique, however, it is no more
> expensive. Imagine: you left-click, the popup menu appears, and the
> mouse is positioned on the default action. So, another click executes
> it. If you don't like the default action, you can move much more
> easily due to the vertical constraint.

My solution would activate the action on the first click: you
right-click, and if you release it the default action is executed. To
activate a different action you right-click, drag the mouse, then the
popup menu appears, and when you release it the command under the
mouse is selected.

This way the must hated "double-click" syndrome could be avoided. Have
you ever seen users double-clicking a link in the browser? That's
because normal (i.e. non programmers) users associate "double click"
with "activate". With my proposed interface, left click will always
mean "select" and right click will be "action", everything with a
single click.
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