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

[John Keller <jkeller matchbox fr>]

Reinout van Schouwen wrote:
> On Sun, 12 Dec 2004, John Keller wrote:
>
> > > http://www.cs.umd.edu/~bederson/livecursor/
> >
> >
> > Ugh. I'm sorry, but I found it that much *harder* to target small 
> > objects (the resize handles on the boxes).
>
>
> I agree they seem to be a bit harder to target at first, though I don't 
> know how this would feel after a few days of practice. Perhaps the 
> resize handles need to be magnetic to the cursor?

True, it's just that programming an application then becomes full of 
special cases. (Not talking about drawing programs, but radio buttons 
vs. text-filled buttons, for example.)

> > It's an interesting test, but I'm not convinced that it's ready for 
> > everyday use.
>
>
> We will only know if someone implements it for X so we can try it out in 
> everyday use...

I totally agree. I didn't mean to come off as dismissing it out-of-hand, 
just that I tend to think that such a cursor would either be limited to 
certain applications or certain people (for example, married with the 
high-contrast, large-cursor accessibility theme so that the cursor 
doesn't always block a large swatch to its lower-right).

Fundamentally, it breaks an interface conceit: if the arrow is an 
idealized representation of the hand (with a right-handed bias, I 
agree), then a rotating arrow becomes disconcerting. I would expect 
that, on some unconscious level, a user would be disconcerted by his 
virtual "hand" being so free to rotate through 360 degrees. Not to 
mention that the "joint" - the pivot point - is the tip, not the base.

Perhaps with refinement it may work better than the existing behavior. 
That's why I agree that it would take an actual implementation and user 
tests to have a clear idea of its actual usefulness (not to mention, 
usability).

- John