> > Rather, you (we all...) need to think differently about how the user
> > interacts with large lists in a touch environment. Basically, a
> > choice-style widget, a drop-down box, menus, all these things we are
> > used to on the desktop no longer make any sense.
>
> I don't think so, to me the use of mouse and use of touch ("monitor
> mouse") is not so different. Fingers are more clumsy than a mouse and
> need bigger areas to touch, but I think, this is the main difference.
> When they are big enough, it is no problem to open menus/drop down
> boxes
> and to choose entries. And a little patch of dragging - not to open the
> entry, where dragging stops - even would make it possible to use long
> choices. This would be the same effect like wiping on a smartphone.
>
> Okay, buttons are the most easy interface for touch, but I don't think,
> the other widgets will be outdated...
I'm afraid I disagree.
We have been doing a lot of our GUI's through touch panels for many years now
(they are much more immune to vibration, chemicals, other environmental factors
than mouse/keyboard/trackball/joystick/stiffstick combinations ever are.)
Our initial designs were heavily influenced by the desktop experience, and this
was very much a Bad Thing. Tending towards unusable...
For me, one of the key differences is that in a mouse setup, the cursor has a
known position on the screen, even when it is not pressed, and the GUI can use
this to set quite a lot of useful cues - e.g. highlighting the widget you are
over, or that you are near an edge and need to scroll, and many other subtle
effects we all take for granted through exposure.
In a touchscreen, the cursor does not exist on the screen at all until it is
"clicked", so you need to substitute for many of the previous behaviours in new
ways (e.g. swipe gestures etc.) and this is quite a different idiom that many
existing widgets are poorly suited to.
Similarly, mnay desktop "gestures" (left / right / middle clicking,
double-clicking, etc.) are not possible in a touch environment, and need to be
substituted in other ways too.
There's a sequence I see people going through, when they try to touch-ify their
app, where they start by trying to make touch versions of the WIMP widgets...
eventually most get around to "new" widgets for touch, as the "standard" way
often just doesn't work.
However, in the OP's case, I imagine that a Fl_Browser widget (which will
automatically get a scrollbar if the list is long) may be fine to get things
going, at least.
SELEX Galileo Ltd
Registered Office: Sigma House, Christopher Martin Road, Basildon, Essex SS14
3EL
A company registered in England & Wales. Company no. 02426132
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