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Must We Click To Interact?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the step-away-from-the-mouse-button dept.

Rockgod writes, "Here is an interesting experiment (warning: heavy Flash!!) that urges you not to click anywhere in the site yet wants you to navigate through it. It's an exploration of the clicking habit of computer users and aims to help understand why it is so hard not to click." The site records the mouse movements of each visitor and offers you a sample of them to replay. Doing so is a little unnerving, like peering into people's minds.

17 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. I could have got first post... by mrogers · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...but I was practising not clicking

    1. Re:I could have got first post... by Dekortage · · Score: 3, Funny

      So is this the difference between a clickless site where you just point, and a pointless site where you just click?

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  2. Yes, we have got to click by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The cursor isn't always "pointed at something" when it is over the client window. Clicking is often unnecessary, but not always. Anything that reverses itself at once when the cursor leaves the area is fine, but if actions which require another action to reverse the effect are triggered by a mouse-over, users feel that they need to be careful where they point their mouse. They shouldn't have to be careful because mouse movement is not exclusive to one application.

    1. Re:Yes, we have got to click by pchan- · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Someone mod this AC up. It's not that users "need" to click. It's that the mouse interface is designed to safely float over elements without triggering them (although the old X-mouse is a notable departure from this). Only when the user has hit the target is the mouse "active". This is because the mouse is an imprecise and difficult to control tool. Have you ever tried freehand drawing with it? Compare that to what you can do with a pen. Forcing precision on the mouse action requires finer movement, greatly increases the likelyhood of unintentionally selecting something, and is generally far more stressful. This is why the users seem to get anxious and want to click. They really want to avoid this horrid new interface that, for some reason, some jackass is trying to force on them.

    2. Re:Yes, we have got to click by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 2, Informative
      Compare that to what you can do with a pen. Forcing precision on the mouse action requires finer movement, greatly increases the likelyhood of unintentionally selecting something, and is generally far more stressful. This is why the users seem to get anxious and want to click. They really want to avoid this horrid new interface that, for some reason, some jackass is trying to force on them.

      Funny you should mention a pen. While it uses a pencil, the new Leo Burnett website (they are one of the bigger ad agencies out there) does just this and is extremely difficult to use. What is funny is that they have been praised by many in the industry.

      Recently however, Lewis Lazare, the advertising columnist for the Chicago Sun Times, a figure who's opinion is highly respected...BLASTED them out of the water in this scathing piece about their website. Of course, he addresses some other points that I definitely agree on, but the relevance is in his discussion about the interface.

      And I'd just like to add....who in the hell gave Leo Burnett the right to resize my browser window? Bastards.

      --
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  3. I think I like clicking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Moving the mouse around to navigate was fine, but after a while I felt a bit like I was chewing without swallowing. There's some kind of satisfaction with the click. Maybe it's just habit, but after swooping around without clickin' I felt frustrated and annoyed. Like the UI was doing everything it could to keep me from that button. If normal mouse-using is me going "i want.... THAT." I felt like I was going "I want... I want... I want... I want..." I must have satisfaction, dammit.

    They say one of a baby's first non-verbal forms communication is pointing. Clicking must be somewhere just after that.

  4. HHGTTG by BenjyD · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The site reminds me too much of the gesture-controlled radio in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: you have to sit perfectly still while listening or you'll change the channel.

  5. No by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ``Must We Click To Interact?''

    No. I can use the shell, read and write mail and Usenet, surf the web, chat with others, manage windows, etc., all without using the mouse. I rarely even find the mouse convenient; it sits there a long movement away from where my hands are (on the keyboard), and it requires adjusting hand movement to the position of a pointer in a different plane.

    --
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  6. Even they miss the point? by bigberk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm wondering if even they miss the point of a click. I tried out the site and the problem is unexpected things triggering when I move the pointer past them. The click is a confirmation of a selection, so the pointer selects an option (from a massive grid on our screen) but the click confirms it. Otherwise, as happens with this site, you end up going to wrong places because you have no way of confirming a selection.

    1. Re:Even they miss the point? by p0tat03 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Agreed. The click is a useful way to confirm your selection. I found that the site needlessly responded to my mouse movements just because I was in-transit to another location. Or worse, if I paused too long in one place it would take that as my choice and run with it. The only way to tell the difference between passing over a button and intending to click it is *time* spent there. This is time I would rather spend being productive, and not waiting for the system to realize that this button is indeed the one I want to go through.

      The click makes the interface faster, it is only limited by how quickly one can move his/her mouse (and damn, I can move pretty quick). An interesting study to be sure, but as an actual interface it leaves much to be desired.

      ... Not to mention that the site itself is bloated and looks pretty. Can you imagine adapting that kind of interface for more practical applications, where user speed becomes an issue? Can you imagine programming an IDE with a no-click interface? Ewwwwww.

  7. nope by rm999 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I actually found this site very hard to navigate. I think this is a direct result of the no-click rule in designing it.

    1. Re:nope by jellomizer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well I am one of those people who move the mouse out of the way after I select stuff to read. On this site it is damn annoying because it opens the text then I move the mouse out of the way to read it because I don't like an arrow on my text. I guess the site is good for people who setup there window managers with sloppy focus that follows the mouse, with instant bring to front on focus. But clicking is a way to say Dude that is what I want to see show it to me not just my mouse moving over it.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  8. There's a good reason why people click by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Human being, when they want to manipulate an object in the physical world, first think "reach the object" then "grab onto the object" (or, generally speaking, "do something with the object"). It's not conscious of course, but that's the way the human brain is designed work.

    Now the GUI interface is a simulated world with objects to manipulate, therefore it's perfectly normal that people want to click. In fact, I doubt clicking is a habit that can be changed, I think it's hardwired in the brain. Imagine, back in the real world: would you reach for a pen and wait for it to attach itself to your hand? of course not, you close your fingers to pick it up. Well, same for computers: you point an object with the pointer then click to "do something". It's natural.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  9. Re:Must we use Flash to not click? by njdj · · Score: 3, Interesting

    but is Flash really required for this? Couldn't it be done another way?

    No, Flash is not really required. It could all have been done with Javascript and images, plus possibly image maps.

    I imagine that clicking is easier to manage than careful mouse manipulation for people with disabilities.

    I'm not disabled, but I'm getting on a bit, (age > 60) and I find clicking a bit troublesome. (Double-clicking is really troublesome, I can't imagine why anyone ever thought that double-clicking was a good idea.) Remember that the sensitivity of mouse movement is adjustable in most GUIs, so pointer manipulation is unlikely to be a problem for anyone.

  10. Heck, never mind clicking... by AEton · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...why use the mouse at all?

    --
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  11. Don't press any key to continue by Dachannien · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Using a mouse interface without clicking is akin to using a command line interface without pressing enter. The mouse click serves a very important purpose - to ensure that selections and actions are performed on the correct item. This greatly reduces errors, increases the speed of interaction, and reduces the real estate required by the interface.

    Creative ways of using a mouse have been tried repeatedly (such as the gesture selection system in Black and White and Darwinia), but the conclusion is invariably that such systems are just pains in the ass once the novelty wears off.

  12. Did Steve Jobs put you up to this?! by Max+Threshold · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is an Apple product feasibility study, isn't it? Is the next Mac going to have a zero-button mouse?