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Re: "Select" vs "Click" and Voice Recognition (was Re: -No Subject-)
Subject:Re: "Select" vs "Click" and Voice Recognition (was Re: -No Subject-) From:"Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- EXPERSOFT -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 9 Aug 1996 13:11:02 -0700
At 08:23 AM 8/9/96 HST, David Jones/KSBEISD wrote:
>Except that I don't "click" buttons ... Because of mouse-caused RSI, I use a
>graphics tablet. So I "tap" buttons. I personally prefer "select," because that
>leaves the precise method up to the user, and however they've been trained to
>use their GUI. [snip]
I will grant you that "click" is not the ideal solution for executing
the command associated with a button on a gui. However, "select" is
not only *not* better, it's actually worse. "Select" is usually
used to mean "highlight", which, in technical terms, means "apply
focus to the gui control". It is possible to give the button control
focus (tab to move the highlight to the button) without actually
activating the button. I have documented development systems in which
the making the distinction was vital.
The nature of the gui environment precludes documenting every conceivable
way to perform a task. You can document a task 6 different ways, some
user, somewhere, will find the seventh way to accomplish it. So you take
the advice of the minimalists (no, minimalism is not a bad word and I
refuse to appologize for it), choose one way to accomplish the task, and
use it consistently throughout. For me that means "click" a button. If
my users prefer to tab to the button and press Return, or, indeed, 'tap'
the button, that is their choice and they will find that option on their own.
Sue Gallagher
sgallagher -at- expersoft -dot- com
-- The _Guide_ is definitive.
Reality is frequently inaccurate.
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