Click? Don't Click? A compelling thought on a simple action...

[FROGGEman2]

I have a laptop, and so I find the gestures, especially the circle gesture, to be very hard.

Overall, I HATE this interface

I have actually been to this site before with a mouse, still hated it.

 

[_Janny_]

It was a nice experience, but it's a bit of a waste of time if you think about it. Instead of clicking you have to wait for a button to know that you want to click it...

 

[Zer_]

To me this just doesn't feel natural. I think clicking with a mouse is a superior interface because it bares many similarities to how we interact with our world around us anyways. We don't simply wave our hand over a book to pick it up, we use our fingers to grab it, and that to me is a critical aspect of interaction with a computer.

 

[wilsonscrazybed]

It appears to be a very cleverly disguised advertisement for a mouse attachment that makes your mouse easier to grasp. Feel free to correct me if you think I am wrong.

 

[Brett Alex]

It appears to be a very cleverly disguised advertisement for a mouse attachment that makes your mouse easier to grasp. Feel free to correct me if you think I am wrong.

Its an awful lot of effort if it is just that.

 

[090907]

Cool. Weird. I had to hold my fingers away from the buttons to not click on auto.
I like my click though.

 

[li-ion]

So then: Do you folks out there think that websites with this design should become more prelevant? Or do you think that clicking is the way to stay?

I would like to see more websites like that. And not only on websites. I think interfaces stopped to evolve somwhere in the eighties. As Windows-user I double-click every day to start and open things like a well trained monkey. Apple brings out new ideas here and there, but earns enough mockery for doing so.
Now you might argue that you can accidentally do something you don't want to, but then again: I mis-clicked so often, that I don't think it could be much worse with gestures ;-)
And for important things you can still ask for a click to make sure.

To me this just doesn't feel natural. I think clicking with a mouse is a superior interface because it bares many similarities to how we interact with our world around us anyways. We don't simply wave our hand over a book to pick it up, we use our fingers to grab it, and that to me is a critical aspect of interaction with a computer.

I don't know, in real life we don't grab something by clicking on it. I don't click on a door to open it, I don't click on my oven to turn it on, I don't klick my key to start a car, I don't click...
I guess you get the idea ;-)

We are just so well trained in using the mouse that everything else feels awkward (at first), but in my opinion the mouseclick has nothing 'natural' on it. It is intuitive but I found the website intuitive as well.

 

[scotth266]

The arms just got in the way.

Huh? What do you mean? Not quite sure...

My IQ just dropped 10 points. It just felt stupidly strange. I can't imagine doing that all the time. Besides, I hate flash based websites. Too flashly, and you can't move your mouse a centimeter without having something random pop up.

Flash based websites are too flashy? That's crazy talk!
I do suppose that I couldn't do this all the time either... I just would like to see more sites with this kinda lineup, not all of them.

Wow, that is simply amazing. To me the interface feels really smooth and natural, a nice break from the usual. I wish the whole internet could be like that.

Off topic: Sorry to ask, but is it just me? Or did my avatar change back from my new March Madness one (Just checking that it isn't my computer).

Glad you approve! And your avatar is still on MM, so you know.

It's kind of gimmicky. Gestures work well with a stylus and touch screen but with a mouse it's a little more difficult to be in complete control without the click.

True enough: this would seem easier with a touchscreen. Since our school is apparently upgrading our laptops to include this feature, I'll have to remember to try it then when they do...

I went to it, and it seems to me that it just replaces clicking with mousing over. I prefer clicking, but I don't find it a big deal, and I liked how it seemingly had no loading times.

I also like how quickly it loaded. The only thing that didn't seem to work all that well was the recordings of previous visitors: couldn't get it to work.

Hmmm... It's too quiet. I like the sound of my mouse clicking. Same goes for keyboards... they need to have some resistance and some sound. I can't abide the ones that just squish.

Even so, I got used to it within seconds. It's a nice interface, but it's just not practical.

I noticed one other person in the dorm say this. The thought that clicking is so ingrained in us that we miss the mere noise of it freaks me out a little. What struck you as it being impractical though? Be more specific.

As an experiment, it was really interesting. I didn't navigate through the entire site, but a good portion of it. And you know what? I liked it. I don't know if I would like it to replace everything, but I could definitely see it being used in places.

I'm glad people are still innovating and trying to improve on what we've got. If ultimately discarded, I think it was not pointless or useless. Thought experiments Einstein did taught us much about what we know of the world and universe today. Who's to say we won't find an appropriate application for this?

Bravo!

A nice summation of my thoughts. I can only hope that some use is found for interfaces like this (other than in James Bond movies ).

I don't feel safe without the clicking. I don't know why but I like clicking on text repeated highlighting and unhighlighting it with the clicks.

What, you mean selecting lines? I suppose that is pretty neat to have.

You know, clicking once does nothing, double clicking highlights the word, triple clicking highlights the paragraph and clicking a fourth time clears the highlight. I do that all the time, not for any reason in particular.

It's oddly habitual to me as well, now that I think about it...

Ohhh, that sounds fun! Post a link, and I'll try it out, and add it to the top of the thread post.

Tada! [http://www.opera.com/]

You can also use voice to control browsing too, kinda cool but waaay impratical.

Thank for the link! I'll give it a shot tommorow, then post my thoughts.

Didn't really take to it, feels like it does stuff without my permission.. More like just watching a video than anything else..

I thought that the "video" effect was an attraction...

 

[scotth266]

Did the whole thing without clicking once.

I love it, being able to browse so fluidly is great.
I would love to navigate everything like this, it really feels like a step towards the future.
I'd imagine the next step you be a wrist mounted sensor instead of a mouse, you'd simply be able to gesture at what you want and it will open.

The only problem is can forsee is if the entire internet is done like that, a lot of it is would be very poorly designed.

Ohh, that sensor idea is neat...
As for your last line I respond: A lot of the internet today is poorly designed as well

I have a laptop, and so I find the gestures, especially the circle gesture, to be very hard.

Overall, I HATE this interface

I have actually been to this site before with a mouse, still hated it.

? I used a laptop as well, so I can't imagine what that has to do with it... I tried it three ways: the touchpad, the nub mouse, and a bluetooth mouse, and found it to be fun all three times. Guess it's just personal opinion.

To me this just doesn't feel natural. I think clicking with a mouse is a superior interface because it bares many similarities to how we interact with our world around us anyways. We don't simply wave our hand over a book to pick it up, we use our fingers to grab it, and that to me is a critical aspect of interaction with a computer.

A solid point. The more posts people make like this, the more it gets me thinking.

It appears to be a very cleverly disguised advertisement for a mouse attachment that makes your mouse easier to grasp. Feel free to correct me if you think I am wrong.

...You mean that pointy thing that keeps you from clicking by stabbing you in the fingers? That seems rather odd, I don't think that makes your mouse easier to grasp in any way!

I would like to see more websites like that. And not only on websites. I think interfaces stopped to evolve somwhere in the eighties. As Windows-user I double-click every day to start and open things like a well trained monkey. Apple brings out new ideas here and there, but earns enough mockery for doing so.
Now you might argue that you can accidentally do something you don't want to, but then again: I mis-clicked so often, that I don't think it could be much worse with gestures ;-)
And for important things you can still ask for a click to make sure.

...

We are just so well trained in using the mouse that everything else feels awkward (at first), but in my opinion the mouseclick has nothing 'natural' on it. It is intuitive but I found the website intuitive as well.

I admit, Apple has been the major pusher of new interfaces (the Iphone comes to mind), and I heard something interesting about touch-screen tables a while back... I've also misclicked a lot, and I agree that the gesture system couldn't be much worse.
I initially thought that the website was rather silly, but it was once I got a grip on things that I became a fan of it. It strikes me as being intuitive as clicking, just in a different, more freeform way: clicking is more structured and orderly.

 

[meatloaf231]

Hmmm... It's too quiet. I like the sound of my mouse clicking. Same goes for keyboards... they need to have some resistance and some sound. I can't abide the ones that just squish.

Even so, I got used to it within seconds. It's a nice interface, but it's just not practical.

I noticed one other person in the dorm say this. The thought that clicking is so ingrained in us that we miss the mere noise of it freaks me out a little. What struck you as it being impractical though? Be more specific.

It's impractical in the way that it removes a good deal of options. Right now there's a difference between hovering over something with the mouse and clicking on it. Replacing the click would be similar to using the old Mac mice with only one button. You can still right click, but you've got to hold down a button on the keyboard to do it. This would end up being the same way. You can't perform as many different tasks with the mouse.

It takes away some of your capabilities and doesn't replace them with anything robust enough to make up for the loss of the click.

 

[Flap Jack452]

The arms just got in the way.

Huh? What do you mean? Not quite sure...

The arms that depicted the mouse being moved just got in the way of what I was trying to look at on the website.

 

[sooperman]

Like people are saying, it sort of feels like you are watching someone else play the computor; there are links just about everywhere on the screen at a time, and you arn't in the kind of control people are used to when playing a computor.

I have a laptop, so I accidentally trackpad click on random things all the time. The website felt like I had both a greater and lesser sense of control at the same time, which is weird for me. It was a greater because nothing happened unless it told it to, and it happened immediately. It was a lesser sense of control because I did not give that satisfing final permission for the action, but it happened anyway.

It is going to take a lot to convince me to switch over to this interface, because I think this would make it more diffucult to do things like play games; games where you need to line up the cursor, and make a precision click. It will also make MMOs more complicated, because telling your charater where to move will be finicky and imprecise.

I can see this interface working being implemented more commonly, but I don't think that will be for a while.

Sorry for all the words ^_^

 

[JokerGrin]

It's pretty interesting.....but I just really love clicking.

 

[scotth266]

Like people are saying, it sort of feels like you are watching someone else play the computor; there are links just about everywhere on the screen at a time, and you arn't in the kind of control people are used to when playing a computor.

I have a laptop, so I accidentally trackpad click on random things all the time. The website felt like I had both a greater and lesser sense of control at the same time, which is weird for me. It was a greater because nothing happened unless it told it to, and it happened immediately. It was a lesser sense of control because I did not give that satisfing final permission for the action, but it happened anyway.

It is going to take a lot to convince me to switch over to this interface, because I think this would make it more diffucult to do things like play games; games where you need to line up the cursor, and make a precision click. It will also make MMOs more complicated, because telling your charater where to move will be finicky and imprecise.

I can see this interface working being implemented more commonly, but I don't think that will be for a while.

Sorry for all the words ^_^

No problem dude! It was a nice post worth reading.