Re: [Usability] Copy/double click feedback

[Thorsten Wilms <t_w_ freenet de>]

On Fri, Sep 28, 2007 at 02:17:40PM +0200, lorenzo wrote:

> 1. copy operation does not provide feedback. Copy is an standard
> feature provided by gtk/gnome and this is "broken".
> There are external tools that provide advanced clipboard functions,
> but this does not fix what I condider a gtk/gnome defect.

Excel draws marching ants around cells that have been copied to the 
clipboard. This feature usually leads to the question of how to get 
rid of that distraction (hitting ESC is one way.

A kind of animated highlighting, but one that disappears on its own 
might work for some applications.


There could be an icon on the panel to represent the clipboard. 
It could blink when something has been copied.

 
> 2. double click does not provide feedback. Double click is a standard
> feature and is "broken".

If somehing happens directly as a result, that's feedback. The only 
action I can think with a too long delay would be application startup. 
That can be solved with pulsing icons or a busy cursor. I don't know how 
it's currently handled, because I use single-click-to-activate and start 
all my apps via deskbar applet or a term.


> 3. rethink the whole desktop usability to remove the double click operation.

Lets see, the on-item actions usually covered by the left mouse button are:
- toggle selection (click)
- activate (double click)
- move (drag)

Currently the price for single-click-to-activate is having to use Ctrl key 
for toggling selection / multiple selection.

The MS way of select-on-hover is just unacceptable if you need to select  
several items.


Icons and list view items could have different zones for selection and 
activation. Either all the time or only if selected (that would be 
a activation and a deselection zone, then).
See a kind of action emblems for KDE4:
http://liquidat.wordpress.com/2007/06/20/kde-4-news-plasma-icons-solid-information-and-taskbar-mockups/


Left click-hold could open a radial menu, with a central area for 
select/unselect. Areas around it would be for Open/Run, Rename, 
Properties, Delete. Dragging outside that circle could close it 
to now allow drag-moving the item.


-- 
Thorsten Wilms

Thorwil's Design for Free Software:
http://thorwil.wordpress.com