Wednesday, April 25, 2007

basic UI elements and people with coordination problems

I love two button mice, but I have to agree with apple that we should be able to do everything with one mouse button.

I would like to learn how KDE works with a one button mouse, and I'm sure it's easy to change the click actions of the right mouse button to match the left... HOWEVER, there is an accessibility problem here.

I cannot allow single clicks to open files. Single clicks with even a extra single mouse button are too common. Also, double clicking is a nice convenience for those of us who can do it, but it is an insurmountable obstacle for many.

We need the "double click menu" to be available as the default action for many situations.

I propose an accessibility mode where this happens for icons.
(There are fundimentally, icons, buttons, hyperlinks, and menu items... Icons move, and can operate dangerous or important things(like programs and data)--therefore they must be protected, traditionally by double clicks. They should indicate that they are operational or open, One should be able to open a file multiple times, so this would be a quantity.

Buttons cause an action to occur with a simple action, like a single click, buttons can do many things, but they should be protected by a "button cover" or be undoable/redoable. The action should start immediately.

Hyperlinks, are like buttons, but should not disrupt the current work. "back button" or new window should occur if session data is not revisitable. Hyperlinks open a new interface without disrupting the old one.

Menu items, should not enact any permanent change until a button is activated.

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Icons are extremely difficult to use


In an accessible envionrment,
Drag and drop must be rethought. grab, and deposit One should be able to do these operations with the keyboard.. I must give MS credit for the windows keyboards have a right click key.

I hope to edit this piece of dribble... I gotta take a break

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