Mouse Gestures Gain Followers

StefMeister writes "According to this article at ZDNet, the use of the mouse using 'mouse gestures' (as introduced in Opera) is gaining a lot of followers. Personally, I almost solely use the keyboard as input device, but it might be interesting for others. Although changing the way people are accustomed to working is always tricky." I certainly enjoy gestures in Mozilla, thanks to OptiMoz.

Comments

They did the same in the game Black And White

[ClickNMix]

The idea of waving the mouse about the screen to do things is good, if done right. But I don't see it as any major innovation, just something thats handy at times.

There is also the problem of having the 'gestures' easy to remember, and how do you document what counts as a gesture, how acurate does it need to be. - Maybe it will take off in many applications, but, its not likely to change the way we work or anything is it?

Reasonable use of gestures

[AlecC]

I use Opera gestures - and love them. But they don't make sense for all applications. The problem is a dsicontinuity when you switch between keyboard and mouse - either way. Editing, and most programming operations, is fundamentally a keyboard based operation, and hot keys are far more sensible than mouse gestures for this. But for me, browsing the web is a mouse-based operation. I have to point to links to follow them, so my hand is on the mouse. I have a wheelmouse, so scrolling is also under my fingers. The only gestures I use regularly are back and forward, and they have become so automatic I use them (uselessly0 wherever the model applies - i.e. in all "browser" type applications, such as Konqueror or Windows Explorer.

One thing we want to do is to try and get people to standardise. It will be a *real* pain if one piece of software used a gesture for minimise and another for quit.

Re:Reasonable use of gestures

[wbattestilli]

I agree with this and would like to make a second point.

I work for Alias|Wavefront. We make Maya. It has a fantastically efficient and powerful UI that is based around gestures. To see people working with Maya, who use it professionally, is quite amazing. I also have to say that it has a very steep learning curve and is way beyond what you can expect from Joe User.

For gestures to work efficiently, there can be no visual feedback while executing the command. If there is visible feedback, your interface is basically reduced to multidirectional menues. Maya can be used this way but it is no better than using the standard pulldown menues.

I love gestures in Galeon/Opera/Mozilla, but I think that they should be left to the power user and that they should be used sparingly in applications.

Im gonna have to vote no on this one...

[rosewood]

I am comming towards the end of my moz experience (check my other posts on that) and one of the first things I did was load up optimoz and added mouse gestures since it was so highly raved about.

My experience was ugh to bad. The first big problem I had was copying text from webpages. For some reason, moz always thought I was gesturing. Well, no. Then, outside of that accidental gesture, I found myself making them a lot more, including the close gesture. Then, when I really wanted to make one, it never worked right :

For back and forward, I have my intelimouse explorer. For scrolling I have a wheel, but the no autoscroll bug in Moz is kinda anoying. If mouse anything needs to be added, that is it. Anything else I can do w/ quick menus, like opening a new tab. Years of FPS mean I can quickly move my mouse and click w/ deadly acuracy.

Pray tell

[pclminion]

Which web browser had gestures before Opera?

"Introduce" != "Invent." Sure, lots of CAD/CAM/CAE tools had gestures forever ago, but how many regular users run those programs daily?

Opera "introduced gestures" to the web browsing world.

Re:Mouse gestures were not "introduced in opera"

[silvaran]

Computers were introduced to me when I was 6 years old, by my father. Consequently, he didn't invent them, but he did introduce them. Similarly, Opera brought their web browser to the masses, and mouse gestures along with it. Just like Microsoft introduced GUI to the masses, they didn't invent it, and weren't the primary people to actually "introduce" it first. Opera is the first application I've ever used that supported gestures, and I would imagine many people are in the same situation.

Re:geek snobbishness

[Quill_28]

Gads get a life. That fact it the using the keyboard in general is quicker than using a mouse. Ask any old-school word perfect secretary how much they like using the shortcuts instead having to use a mouse.

But you're right I would certainly call 50 year old ladies named "Nancy" super geeks, because they prefer clicking keys rather than a mouse. Go away now.