Thread: Ipod touch owner on the fence
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maacruz is offline maacruz
2009-05-02 , 13:54
Posts: 1,101 | Thanked: 1,185 times | Joined on Aug 2008 @ Spain
#45
Originally Posted by attila77 View Post
- I see kinetic scroll as a specific mouse gesture
You are right, from a programing point of view.
From a ergonomic POV, you have three different pointing devices (finger, stylus, and mouse), each one used in its own way and with its own issues. So, kinetic panning is very desirable when using the first two, specially on hand sized screens because the angle of the movement required. But, with mouse devices, it isn't so desirable. So, I see it as a "hand/stylus gesture"

Originally Posted by kanishou View Post
What would be an example of such large amounts of animation "for the fun of it"? Most animations used in GUI design fall into the category of transitions. Transitions generally help the eye to follow what's going on and make interfaces more pleasant to use (which is what usability is all about). Transitions can be more elaborate than they have to, which is often done purely for effect. But I doubt you will find much of this in Fremantle.
The excess of animations can be even worse than the lack of any animations. While many animations fall into the category of "useful" (being pleasant could be considered useful too), sometimes they are just distracting or even cause motion sickening (I can't stand many compiz effects, and even know people unable to play FPS games due to motion sickening).

Originally Posted by kanishou View Post
It may not be hard for you, but blind mouse gestures are already a bit hard to discover. Making the amount of scrolling dependend on how fast you execute the gesture without any visual feedback... that's intense. Of course if you are designing for geeks, that can certainly be described as "not that hard".

Not only that, but when the page is moving after the gesture, if you see the content passing you can stop the movement, just as you expect by putting the finger or stylus on the screen.

Originally Posted by attila77 View Post
The biggest impediment there is that it's simply not cool. It works (especially as a page flip button replacement), but it's too raw.
You feel it "raw" because your brain expect a certain response or feedback from the "object" after "pushing" it, and is getting a completely different one.

Originally Posted by kanishou View Post
That's a good one, but would you want this as a universal replacement for kinetic panning? It's a two-step process, which is much less efficient if you just want to slightly adjust the view. And it's usefullness depends on the size of the content. If the content is only slightly larger than the view, or infinitely large, then it's not so effective.
Completely agree.
I know this method from "The gimp", where it is used for quick navigation and positioning in a image bigger than the window.
I think it is a good complement to kinetic panning, usable for more or less fast/rough positioning in big pages.
Kinetic panning makes for a good standard, which can certainly be augmented with more specialized forms of scrolling if the type of content allows it.
Agreed