unity-design team mailing list archive

[Frederik Nnaji <frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 20:31, Gavin Langdon <puttabutta@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 11:14 AM, Frederik Nnaji <frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
>
>>
>> how about removing the mouse cursor altogether while typing?
>>
>
> Actually, IIRC OS X does this and it's quite a nice feature (although
> sometimes it just appears like it's a bug rather than a feature).
>

yeah.. not being familiar with OS X that much, i can only guess that this
here is slightly different from Apple's approach..
IIRC, the mouse cursor disappears while typing, until the mouse is moved, as
far as OS X is concerned..
i rather mean here: merge both cursors into one while typing.

why:
*while typing, my focus is either on something i am reading or, as usually,
on the letters following the text cursor
*to do any DnD operations on recently input text, i would only have to
"touch" the mouse, instead of hauling it over all the way from wherever i
was hiding it to not obscure my vision while typing..

above mentioned behaviour of slinging the mouse way out of the window while
typing would then not be necessary anymore.


about the thread's main topic:
yes, i was also considering to allow tooltips to travel with the mouse
cursor, since our focal point usually does, too.
the necessity to "sling the mouse cursor out of sight" so it may no longer
disturb should be countered altogether.
first of all, mouse cursors should never obstruct, they should help with
orientation.
the purpose of a mouse pointer is, to allow the user to focus on special
small areas for interaction.

i can think of dozens of improvements we can come up with, if we brainstorm
that original purpose in context with what options we have nowadays.

next thought also:
the mouse is always above any other windows, just like a widget layer.
we should consider assigning default actions to the mouse, depending on what
kind of object it is hovering..

innumerable possibilities are inspired through this thread, thank you for
reviving such a crucial interface meme