Sorry, I thought Microsoft were the first to come up with the different cursor styles. I thought that when Susan Kare (designer of the cursors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Kare) spent time at Microsoft doing graphic design work she came up with the cursor we all know and love to argue about.
I apologise for not knowing my cursor history. I'd rather not argue over an opinion - I have statistics to do that for me. Cheers guys. On 1/11/07, Nick Fitzsimons <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 11 Jan 2007, at 12:53:59, James Crooke wrote: > So what does everyone think would suit a clickable button, > (default) arrow > cursor or finger-pointer cursor? > > (For now, let's forget the fact that Microsoft invented the > convention of a > default arrow and that we all tend to give in to the default > attributes to > prevent breaking conventions.) What makes you think MS invented it? On my Mac, the cursor remains in the default state (arrow) when over a button. This has been the case since I started using Macs in the early 90s. The behaviour is the same in all applications, and is in accordance with the Apple Human Interface Guidelines [1]. When using a site which turns the cursor to the link-style cursor when hovering over a button, I would tend to assume that it wasn't a button (which causes an action [2]) but a hyperlink (which merely causes navigation) styled to look like a button. Links and buttons aren't the same thing, in terms of the fundamental principles of UI design, which is why they give different feedback. If your buttons are just links that look like buttons, then set the cursor to the link-style cursor; if they are action buttons, then leave them with the default cursor. The conventions were established for a reason. If users are confused as to where or how to click on a site, that would suggest to me that the design has deeper problems than can be fixed by mucking about with the default behaviour of the system. There's no reason that graphic design can't enhance usability, but if it hinders it, it becomes a problem. Regards, Nick. [1] <http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/ Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/XHIGCursors/chapter_15_section_2.html#// apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40002724-TPXREF101> [2] <http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/ Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/XHIGControls/chapter_18_section_2.html#// apple_ref/doc/uid/TP30000359-TPXREF186> -- Nick Fitzsimons http://www.nickfitz.co.uk/ ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
-- James ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
