On 05/01/2015 10:52 AM, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
John Moser wrote on 30/04/15 03:23:
...
There have been dozens of desktop computer OS manufacturers less
successful than Apple -- for example, Acorn, Be, Commodore, Google,
IBM, Sun, and every company that has ever released an OS based on
Gnome or KDE. Broadly marketed is assuming the question -- the
For decades? Standing side-by-side with Dell in Best Buy and CompUSA?
With their own stores? All over the news, pervasive throughout culture?
Sure, there are plenty of commercially-introduced operating
systems--such as Ubuntu. Do you see Ubuntu stores popping up
everywhere? Do you see ads for Ubuntu on TV, imploring users to
switch? Is Ubuntu broadly marketing toward the consumer market, or just
passively sitting aside as an available option?
Back in 10.04, Ubuntu tried moving the controls to the left. This
met with huge resistance, largely in the form of complaining,
whining, and people putting the controls back where they belong.
That is similarly assuming the question. The only reason you think the
controls ... belong on the right is that around 1993, someone at
I have given the ergonomic definition.
In both Windows and OS X, putting the controls all on one side (a)
increases the risk that you'll close a window when you mean to minimize
or maximize it,
The argument is about putting all the controls on the left instead of
the right. In that context, you risk closing the window when you
operate the locally-integrated menu.
(b) makes centered titles look imbalanced in the title
bar,
No different if all controls are on the left; and, generally, the
least-important thing anyone could say on the topic.
and (c) causes ugliness when a window doesn't have maximize and/or
close functions, because you end up with buttons that are either
permanently insensitive (as in Windows and OS X) or
inconsistently-placed (as in Ubuntu).
This is not solved by moving buttons around.
These problems could be avoided
by splitting them across left and right, as Canonical's then-head of
design suggested: Personally, I would have the max and min on the
left and close on the right.
https://web.archive.org/web/20100315143609/http://www.ivankamajic.com/?p=281
That seems like the ultimate bad design, but I'll dodge on that one
entirely because it only strikes my senses as scattering related window
controls around. I can make up an argument for it on-the-spot, and
it'll sound impressive and well-reasoned; but I'd rather not commit to
anything I haven't considered substantially.
...
I said most people are right-handed, and that the easiest way to
tilt your wrist or move your arm was out and away. The top-right
of your screen is the easiest area of the screen to access--go
ahead, try it. Those of us with civil rights in Elbonia will find
I'm completely correct; lefties will find confusion, followed by
the realization that they're using the wrong hand.
Apart from the Fitts's-Law-derived conclusions that the easiest pixels
to hit are (a) the one you're at right now and (b) the four corners,
I'm not aware of any research on this. Do you know of any?
Hold your right arm out straight in front of you, with the fingers
extended in line with the forearm.
Now, tilt your wrist thirty degrees to the right. That's easy, yes?
It's a wide range of motion.
Now, instead, tilt your wrist thirty degrees to the left.
YOU CANNOT DO IT.
The inward tilting motion is awkward. It strains the wrist, and range
of motion is minimal. Further, the mouse is in such a position that
pushing forward in the neutral manner or extending the fingers causes it
to move roughly 10 degrees (extending the fingers may move the mouse 0
to 5 degrees) to the right--to the outside of the body.
Generally, when moving up-right, the crude movement sends the mouse
pointer off at a 45 degree angle; up-left crude movement is 10-15
degrees. Large, wide movements of the arm are used to make the mouse
move inward toward the body--left for right-handed people. You *can*
get around this if you own a cordless mouse: advanced juggling tricks
such as lifting your hand off the mouse and rotating your arm to shuffle
the mouse around on the desk with your pinky can more easily move it to
the left. Some people as well reposition their computer mice; if you
watch, you'll see they never lift and reposition the mouse to go right,
but will occasionally lift and reposition the mouse out to the right so
as to use the range of motion of the arm (from the shoulder) to go left.
This is basic human physiology applied to ergonomics: movement X is
easy for a human, task A is easy if it requires movement X.
The four corners thing is just that you can crash the mouse out
infinitely up and right and end up at a corner (same for the other 3).
You'll notice the implication that hitting a pixel *close* to where you
are now is harder than hitting a corner pixel.
A year later, in
