Re: [Usability] Locating the mouse pointer when it is on the bottom of the screen?

[Leonardo Santagada <santagada gmail com>]

Talking about top taskbar, why isn't that the dafault? changing tasks
is the most common action and a taskbar at the top is the easier to
use, because it is closer to all the other buttons, like toolbars,
menubars ans the like. I only use it this way, even in windows xp
(where it has a bug IMO that some windows ignore where the bar is and
position itself under it.).


On Thu, 09 Dec 2004 18:55:23 +0100, Maurizio Colucci
<seguso forever tin it> wrote:
> Uno Engborg wrote:
> 
> 
> > Maurizio Colucci wrote:
> >
> >> Maurizio Colucci wrote:
> >>
> >>> Hello,
> >>>
> >>> It is common knowledge that buttons anchored to the edges of the
> >>> screen are easier to click, even if they are small: it is like the
> >>> button had an infinite dimension along one axis. For example, if you
> >>> have a button to the top edge of the scrren, you abruptly move the
> >>> mouse vertically to the top of the screen, to the very last pixel,
> >>> and then you only need to adjust your pointer horizontally.
> >>>
> >>> For this reason, I believe, Gnome (or at least Ubuntu Gnome) uses two
> >>> panels by default, instead of one: because they can be put at the two
> >>> edges of the screen, exploiting this logic.
> >>>
> >>> The problem is that the bottom panel is not as easy to use as the
> >>> topmost one because, if I move the mouse to the bottom of the screen,
> >>> to the very last pixel, I don't see the mouse pointer anymore! It is
> >>> difficult to understand where I am pointing.
> >>>
> >>> Unfortunately, the bottom panel contains the taskbar, which is much
> >>> more frequently used than the other panel.
> >>>
> >>> Of course I can move the taskbar, but other people may not be able to
> >>> do it, and in general it is a pity to waste a useful edge of the screen.
> >>>
> >>> I thought maybe the problem could be solved by flipping the mouse
> >>> pointer vertically when the mouse is on the bottom edge of the
> >>> screen. What about it?
> >>>
> >>> Mau
> >>>
> >>
> >> I may have made a curious discovery: I watched four people who usually
> >> keep the window-list (=taskbar) on bottom and two people who keep it
> >> on top (sorry, I don't know anyone else who does).
> >>
> >> It seems that who keeps the taskbar on top tends to move the mouse
> >> towards the buttons in a straight diagonal line, then adjust only
> >> horizontally. On the other hand, who uses the taskbar on bottom tends
> >> to reach the button along a curved line, the end of which is vertical.
> >>
> >> The latter behavior is of course less logical and efficient. I guess
> >> they developed this habit _because_ of the limitation of not seeing
> >> the cursor when it is on the absolute bottom.
> >
> >
> > Interesting.
> > Perhaps we should high light the button as they are moused over. That
> > way it people wouldn't need to see the curser to determin what button
> > they was about to click.
> 
> ?? Taskbar buttons are already highlighed on mouseover.
> 
> I don't believe that's enough, as I said in another post. You know where
> you are, but you don't know how much you have to move to reach the right
> button.
> 
> 
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-- 
Leonardo Santagada

"But hey, the fact that I have better taste than anybody else in the
universe is just something I have to live with. It's not easy being
me."
-- Linus Torvalds.