How can we make our computer interaction more natural? (Part 1)
Let’s think for a moment about the ways in which we interact with our computers in our present time. Without a doubt, the most dominating input devices are the mouse and the keyboard, right? People primarily rely on these input mechanisms as formal means to issue commands and type text. However, people vary according to their preference: geeks and IT professionals rely more heavily on the keyboard while beginners and computer naives learn to operate the mouse first and they stick to it.
Still, other people, especially in the publishing industry, use voice, or spoken words, as a means to dictate text as well as to tell the computer what to do. Voice recognition, as a technology, has evolved rapidly in the last decade that it’s now considered a very productive and feasible way for interacting and typing text given the right circumstances. Obviously, using voice is the most natural way for us to interact.
But what about the other popular mechanisms, namely the mouse and the keyboard? The question that inspired this post is: has these two mechanisms reached a point where it seems “natural” for us, as humans, to use them to interact with our computers? If no, then can we add a “human” touch to these devices to make them easier and more natural to use?
The answer is: we certainly can! In this post and the next one, I’ll let you in on some wonderful applications that can dramatically shift the way you use your mouse and keyboard, respectively. The beauty of these applications is that you don’t have to abandon what you’re already used to, you just need to get used to wonderful new interaction techniques that can vastly improve your interaction experience using these devices.
So today, we’ll start with..
The Legendary Mouse
What can you do beside clicking your way around?
Let’s start at the beginning. A computer mouse is the second most natural input mechanism after the voice. Why? Simply because it’s a physical device that we can control, hold, move around and even play with. It was invented in 1964 by Douglas Engelbart who gave it this nickname because of the tail that came out of its end.
There hasn’t been any major changes to the way the mouse works since its invention. Certainly, there were improvements in the design and operation which included:
- More ergonomic designs
- Elimination of the “tail” (cordless mice)
- More buttons
- Scrollwheels
- Higher precision using optical and laser beam instead of tracker ball
Nevertheless, the concept of using the mouse remained the same: you move it around and click on things that appear on your screen. In my opinion, the act of clicking or double-clicking (triple-clicking? give me a break!) on graphical user interface (GUI) elements has some major shortcomings, despite being customary:
- It forces you to precisely position your mouse cursor on the exact element (e.g., button) that you need to trigger. An offset by as little as 0.5cm could lead to a totally different and undesired action.
- It is slow, especially with the default
OS settings. - On the long run, and if used excessively, it can lead to serious health issues, most notably numbness and tingling in the thumb and index finger that may develop into Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS).
Fortunately, there are things you can do to make using the mouse a more productive interaction device. For example, you could:
- Cut the clicking in half! Yes you can do that if you make the middle mouse button, for instance, act as a double clicker. (Cool Mouse can help you do that [Windows only])
- Increase the speed and acceleration of the mouse, so the cursor moves a lot faster with the same physical mouse movement.
- Have the cursor smartly snap to elements you’re likely to move it to, like the stupid “OK”s on dialog boxes.
- Using the scrollwheel on the mouse instead of clicking the scrollbar found on most GUI screens.
However, I’m not satisfied with the above improvements. Remember, my original purpose in this post is to “humanize” my interaction using the mouse. What do humans do when they communicate? They talk right? Cool! Thanks for the info :)
But seriously what else do they do? Along with verbal communication, we also do a lot of gesturing. Formally speaking, A human gesture is a:
a form of non-verbal communication made with a part of the body, used instead of or in combination with verbal communication. The language of gesture is rich in ways for individuals to express a variety of feelings and thoughts, from contempt and hostility to approval and affection.
So what happens if we port this exact concept to the world of computing? Well, we could flip a computer off since it was unable to install any updates but insisted that we restart anyway, although that probably won’t be of much use beside letting some steam off.
However, there’s a smarter way. We can fire up mouse gestures!
The Power of Mouse Gestures
A mouse gesture is a way of combining computer mouse movements and clicks which the software recognizes as a specific command.
My bet is that we’ve all been doing mouse gestures without even realizing it. Have you ever done a drag-drop operation (no, not this kind)? That’s a mouse gesture! However, the beauty here is that this idea can be generalized much further to include virtually any application you use and any gesture movement you dream of!
Being able to issue an appropriate gesture for an appropriate action using your mouse doesn’t only make things easier, it makes using your mouse “feel right” again. For example, to delete something, say incoming email, instead of the usual way, why not quickly draw an ‘x’ in any size you prefer:
Cool, huh! Let’s see how you can do the same and much more.
StrokeIt: Free Mouse Gesture Recognition
I’m a PC user so I’m sticking to what I know and I know this: StrokeIt (download) is one of the best, if not the best, free mouse gesture recognition software for Windows. In fact, it’s partially what inspired this post. I wanted to tell everybody about this great little appplication and what it can do for you. The rate of recognition is unbelievably fast and accurate. It runs out of the box with a myriad of gestures and associated actions. And here’s the punch line: you can teach it your own gestures the way you like them and associate these gestures with specific applications or make them global to every application on your system.
To start off, you should recognize the repetitive tasks you usually do with the mouse and define a gesture for them. You can use one of the built-in gestures (which correspond to the English alphabets) or again you can draw your own gesture.
Secondly, you should define the mouse button that triggers the drawing. For me, I’ve set the middle mouse button.
Here is another favourite gesture of mine: a close gesture which closes the current application. It’s drawn exactly like a “C”. Remember, your “C” doesn’t have to be a perfect half-circle, it can of any size and you can also draw it backwards.
Can you already see the benefit of drawing such gestures instead of, say, reaching for the red ‘X’ button or closing the application from the taskbar? I think the benefits lend themselves pretty clearly:
- It’s faster.
- It’s more flexibile.
- Above all, it’s just more natural!
Conclusion
With just little bit of learning and getting used to, mouse gestures can provide the next powerful and intuitive means for us to interact with our desktops. However, they’re not meant to completely replace clicking on various GUI elements, but rather complement them with more human-friendly actions (i.e., drawings) that provide alternative ways to achieve the same thing.
But wait, here’s an idea: Can we completely elminate clicking altogether? Think about it: A desktop-based interface that features the same graphical elements you’re used to (buttons, lists, etc), except you don’t need to click to move around. You can do so with mere gestures, like hovering back and forth over a button once!
The question is: after getting used to, would this kind gesture-based system make its way into mainstream acceptance? Or are we so hooked on clicking that we can’t imagine a world where computer mice are buttonless?
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These are good ideas. But let me tell you my immediate need. I just need to not have to click. Clicking is killing my hands and wrist. I need a mouse which understands just three words: left, right, and double.
A dumb mouse which understands those three words would be a Godsend!
I couldn’t possibly agree more. I’m anti-clicking myself. But I gotta tell you: the solution you’re looking for isn’t in the mouse, it’s in the software.
I know it’s a big leap forward, but the guys at http://dontclick.it/ have created something that could really work if adopted by major software players.
[...] our usage of the mouse and keyboard to make them truly “human interface devices“. The first part explored our everyday usage of the computer mouse, what improvements can be made to make it more [...]
[...] StrokeIt (read my review) [...]
I found a new mouse gesture software. It’s very simple and I use it a lot. Check it out. It’s called LiveEdge at http://home.swipnet.se/zebware/
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