On 10 Jan 2007, at 15:09:12, Andrew Maben wrote:
When I read the first couple of messages in this thread, I had a
look at my two browsers - IE6/PC and Safari/Mac.
It was interesting to see that IE displays what I believe is the
correct behavior (the cursor becomes insertion bar over text),
while in Safari it remains an arrow - or does it? I noticed a
flicker, and moving the cursor very slowly from a blank area to
text it does, for an instant, become an insertion bar before
returning to the arrow. Somewhat bizarre and not in keeping with
the vaunted Macintosh easy to use UI?
Strange: my Safari 2.0.4 (419.3) turns the cursor into an insertion
bar over text. Did you see this on more than one site?
More generally, I'd think that the different cursors displayed are
an OPERATING SYSTEM rather than APPLICATION UI issue, and as such
should be left alone - after all, if the insertion bar is hard to
see in IE then it's equally hard to see in MS Word, and the user
should be left to decide for herself whether to make a system-wide
change of cursor types. Surely taking decisions of this kind out of
the user's hands in the browser environment runs counter to the
spirit of usability?
Absolutely agree with you. We shouldn't be trying to override system-
wide preferences in the control of the user because of our own
personal preference. After all, OS manufacturers have done enormous
amounts of research into usability; it's unlikely that one solitary
web developer is going to discover something they've been doing wrong
all these years. (And the good people at Opera would do well to take
this on board, too.)
Regards,
Nick.
--
Nick Fitzsimons
http://www.nickfitz.co.uk/
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