Single v Double click

Single v Double click

Posted Jan 10, 2006 19:29 UTC (Tue) by Baylink (subscriber, #755)
In reply to: Winning the Linux Wars (MCP) by tnoo
Parent article: Winning the Linux Wars (MCP)

This one frustrates me.

There's a *very good* reason why icons require a double-click to utilise the "Open" shortcut: it's a *shortcut*.

Icons on desktops and in folders are *objects*. Things which you can click once to get a response are *buttons*. Buttons are *supposed* to look like buttons; you can blame Microsoft itself (and particularly the Toolbar team in the Office group) for screwing *that* bit of obviousness up by creating lots of buttons that don't look like buttons until you mouseover them.

Everyone likes to assume that *any* of these desktop environments ought to be "so simple anyone can learn them without training or reading", and folks, it's just not that way.

And it ought not to be that way.

What You See Is All You Get is bad enough... but everyone becomes a power user eventually, to one degree or another. And ghod help you if you make it *harder* for powerusers to get work down because you're trying to make intake training easier.

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