As you may remember from our series on common usability terms, I have a lot of interest in graphical user interface concepts. In addition, I applaud anyone trying to improve existing concepts, people that try to think beyond set conventions to come up with an improved version of that concept, or a new concept altogether. Thorsten Wilms took on the well-established concept of the scrollbar, and came up with a few interesting tweaks.
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Member since:2006-10-15
The concept isn't horrible, and I'm not sure you would be "relearning" anything -- the functionality he's replacing is almost never used as it is. I think the idea is kind of "blah" but I'm glad he's thinking of UI anyway.
I really don't want to sound like a Mac snob (I'm really not that big of a fan! I swear!), but I have to say I love the Mac Book Pro's multi-touch. I almost never use a scroll bar because of the combination of the up/down arrows on a keyboard and being able to scroll horizontally and vertically by simply using two fingers instead of one.
When I eventually have to replace my MBP and get something cheap that runs Linux, I will really miss this functionality (and I guess I kind of like the keyboard as well).
Member since:2006-03-20
In Linux, you get to enable circular scrolling on your touch pad too. It's triggered slightly differently (start your finter in hotspot of your choice) though, as right and middle clicks are done with multiple finger taps, but the basic interaction style is still there.
Member since:2005-06-29
Member since:2005-07-17
I never got why double finger scrolling is so much better than regular using the edge of a touchpad. I have to move my entire palm to perform this gesture which makes it slower and I can't see myself using it for a prolonged time like when reading an e-book. Edge scrolling is also more intuitive, window has a scrollbar on the right (and/or down) and so does touchpad.
More on topic. I think the popup scrollbar concept is not so good mainly because I can't see a simple way to jump to a certain point in the document anymore.
Member since:2006-10-08
I forget they exist really.
Hehe, since I'm using UNIX operating systems, I'm familiar with handling a three button mouse. Honestly, it's more comfortable than a two button mouse with a wheel - the wheel acts "bumpy" when scrolling (hop, hop, hop), while pressing the middle mouse button and moving the mouse in Y direction generates a more shmooth scrolling. Well, this is a standard behaviour in UNIX / X11 based applications for years, nothing new, really. Ah yes, and it's more healthy than the wheel which causes carpal tunnel diseases because it makes you move your fingers in an unhealthy manner. :-)
Of course you could extend this concept not only to vertical scrolling, but to scrolling in general (pressing middle mouse button and moving mouse in X direction - do horizontal scrolling, or pressing middle mouse button within a media player window and moving mouse in X or Y directioon - do skipping in video or in playlist).
As you surely will notice, this concept does not force you to aim precisely with the mouse to a certain control object (a scrollbar slider or a scrollbar button), you simply move the mouse into the context you want to control (e. g. the web page, the video player, the directory list, the file list) and you do the actoin desired. Another advantage is the obsolescense of the need to put the scrollbars onto the screen - this gives you more real estate for the content you're working with.
Member since:2005-06-29
It's also a one way ticket to RSI. Dragging and dropping is also worse enough in this context, but a continual mouse button press in order to scroll?
Ugh. To each his own.
Member since:2005-06-29
Member since:
2005-06-29
Honestly, I haven't used a scrollbar since i bought a mouse with a scroll wheel.
I forget they exist really.