Comments on: The beginning of the end of the right-click menu http://eurekaman.com/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-right-click-menu Pure Gold Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:07:27 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Des Traynor http://eurekaman.com/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-right-click-menu/comment-page-1#comment-494 Des Traynor Sun, 22 Oct 2006 16:23:00 +0000 http://eurekaman.com/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-right-click-menu#comment-494 Good post, it is interesting to watch how some web apps seem to be doing their darndest to claim back some desktop things such as right click, sliders, drag and drop, whereas others are simply using what they have, i.e. hovers. <br /> <br /> Ditto on the comment form btw :) Good post, it is interesting to watch how some web apps seem to be doing their darndest to claim back some desktop things such as right click, sliders, drag and drop, whereas others are simply using what they have, i.e. hovers.

Ditto on the comment form btw :)

]]> By: danger http://eurekaman.com/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-right-click-menu/comment-page-1#comment-492 danger Wed, 18 Oct 2006 01:04:00 +0000 http://eurekaman.com/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-right-click-menu#comment-492 Interesting. But if we're moving away from them, how come the new google docs/spreadsheets, ms live betas and yahoo stuff all are starting to use right click menus? I really like context-sensitive right click menus. I think as a paradigm it makes absolute sense - left click to select, right click to show actions particular to your selection. <br /> <br /> Drifting off topic... If you are talking about unnecessary complexity, just look at your comments form! I find it incredibly confusing - now I'm posting on sxore? Is that one of your sites? Do I really have to click that little 'what's this?' And you want me to tag my comment? That's an awful lot to go through, especially on top of a captcha. <br /> <br /> The button even says 'sxore it' - is that even going to post my comment? This is the last time I'm going to bother trying to submit this, what does '|' in a captcha mean? I? i, | capital L? Interesting. But if we’re moving away from them, how come the new google docs/spreadsheets, ms live betas and yahoo stuff all are starting to use right click menus? I really like context-sensitive right click menus. I think as a paradigm it makes absolute sense - left click to select, right click to show actions particular to your selection.

Drifting off topic… If you are talking about unnecessary complexity, just look at your comments form! I find it incredibly confusing - now I’m posting on sxore? Is that one of your sites? Do I really have to click that little ‘what’s this?’ And you want me to tag my comment? That’s an awful lot to go through, especially on top of a captcha.

The button even says ’sxore it’ - is that even going to post my comment? This is the last time I’m going to bother trying to submit this, what does ‘|’ in a captcha mean? I? i, | capital L?

]]> By: r0wb0t http://eurekaman.com/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-right-click-menu/comment-page-1#comment-493 r0wb0t Wed, 18 Oct 2006 01:04:00 +0000 http://eurekaman.com/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-right-click-menu#comment-493 Ha! Yeah you got me there. I've been wavering on dumping Sxore for a while. They definately have usability issues which I've been meaning to talk about. For the record, I have no connection to Sxore, apart from using the free service. Sxore is a service of Sxip, a distributed identity company, who are having a lot of personnel problems at the moment from what I hear. I'll probably install the wordpress OpenID plugin instead soon. <br /> <br /> Regarding your examples of new right-click menus on the web, it is hard for web apps to "move away" from right-click menus since they have been so absent in the past. It is an obvious step for these applications to take in trying to provide a desktop-like experience. My thought is that web apps could embrace their constraints and instead lead the way for desktop apps in providing an alternative more usable alternative to the right-click. I wonder if any of these companies are keeping track of usage patterns with regard to their context menus? <br /> <br /> You say: <br /> >> I think as a paradigm it makes absolute sense - left click to select, right click to show actions particular to your selection. <br /> <br /> Well... absolute sense is going a bit too far. For you, now, after years of experience, it makes absolute sense. But it's just another wierd thing that has to be learned about computer interfaces. It doesn't correspond to any real-world interaction. A major goal of the interface designer should be to reduce reliance on learned idioms. Ha! Yeah you got me there. I’ve been wavering on dumping Sxore for a while. They definately have usability issues which I’ve been meaning to talk about. For the record, I have no connection to Sxore, apart from using the free service. Sxore is a service of Sxip, a distributed identity company, who are having a lot of personnel problems at the moment from what I hear. I’ll probably install the wordpress OpenID plugin instead soon.

Regarding your examples of new right-click menus on the web, it is hard for web apps to "move away" from right-click menus since they have been so absent in the past. It is an obvious step for these applications to take in trying to provide a desktop-like experience. My thought is that web apps could embrace their constraints and instead lead the way for desktop apps in providing an alternative more usable alternative to the right-click. I wonder if any of these companies are keeping track of usage patterns with regard to their context menus?

You say:

>> I think as a paradigm it makes absolute sense - left click to select, right click to show actions particular to your selection.

Well… absolute sense is going a bit too far. For you, now, after years of experience, it makes absolute sense. But it’s just another wierd thing that has to be learned about computer interfaces. It doesn’t correspond to any real-world interaction. A major goal of the interface designer should be to reduce reliance on learned idioms.

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