Drag and drop is so ubiquitous that we sometimes forget that mouse movements can be meaningful. Mouse gestures have revealed the true power of mouse movements to many users, though lack of standardization and wide integration still limit their usefulness.
In spite of Bayesian spam filtering, I have daily supply of spam and email worms to look through. Usually, I can already tell by the subject lines that it is spam. Nevertheless, my email client (Novell Evolution) requires me to click around a lot in order to select and delete all relevant messages. One typical pattern for interrupted multi-selection in lists is the Ctrl+clck pattern, but it quickly becomes cumbersome, especially because a single false click can destroy your selection instantly.
How about simply painting over the messages I don’t want?
Ctrl+click+mouse-move could switch into “paint mode”. By simply clicking+drawing over the unwanted nonsense, it would get selected. It would be ideal if the selection would change in real-time, rather than after I finish drawing (as the above mock-up might suggest) — then painting over selected items again would unselect them. The paint lines could also disappear as soon as they have taken effect to avoid obscuring the screen.
A similar pattern could be very useful when dealing with rows of checkboxes and might eliminate the need for “Check all” buttons.
No wiki page yet for this idea, but feel free to [[edit:Paint selection|create one]]. Has this already been done in a common office application?
November 10, 2005 at 8:18 am
whilst i agree with the sentiment regarding gestures, i am not so sure this particular idea is worth following up?
the previous blog (bleugh!) entry regarding hover and switch is a much nicer approach which can also be applied here … ?
November 10, 2005 at 8:29 am
The approach to do away with clicking entirely is certainly fascinating, but not without its risks. The more “hover-sensitive” areas you have, the more likely you are to trigger something by accident, be confused by undesired movement on the screen, and so forth.
When dealing with selections, I think any imprecise approach is inherently problematic. Keep in mind that we’re talking about user actions that are often followed up by deletions, moves, and so forth. Here I’d like to have precise indicators for when to start and when to end the selection. But perhaps the clicking would indeed not be required, and a simple press-down of the Ctrl-Key while moving the mouse could softly highlight emails (or files, or whatever).
November 10, 2005 at 8:35 am
imagine having various “lens” modes. whereby you active the lenses — for which gestures would be excellent. and then have specific “click-free” interfaces …
hope that makes some kind of sense
November 10, 2005 at 8:39 am
My only worry is that newbies tend to have big problems with “modal” interfaces like that because they can easily get “trapped”. “Why is suddenly everything highlighted?” “Why can’t I get out of this ()$§$() text editor?”
So you need either very big shiny buttons that indicate what “lens” is currently being used, or the mode only persists while some explicit user-dependent condition is met, e.g. a key is held down.
November 10, 2005 at 8:42 am
good point.
hmz, perhaps make them “drag” the lens ?
November 10, 2005 at 8:58 am
Clickless drag & drop would be interesting. How would you drop the lens / stop using it? I’m a sucker for simplicity, so I’m not sold yet on this whole lens concept. i’d already be happy if I had a quicker way to delete my spam messages, though ,-). Don’t get me started on email UI in general