On Jan 11, 2007, at 6:47 AM, James Crooke wrote:
We have conducted usability testing on 100's of sites and my
argument is that when you hover over a button and nothing happens,
users sometimes think "oh the button is dead"
So it's not just my personal preference to have a cursor change to
a finger-pointer on a button.
"We" as designers know (presumably!) that a form button performs a
different function from a hyperlink - submit/reset a form vs. direct
browser to a new URL. To a user (who has no need to know, still less
understand the technicalities of this difference) the result in each
case is broadly the same: different content is presented in the
browser window. As the pointer cursor means "click and something will
happen", it makes sense to have the pointer appear in each case. (The
use of form elements purely for navigation is another discussion...)
Where the browser's defaults fall short, i think we have at least the
right, if not a duty, to override them. In this instance I'd be
astonished if any user whose browser default button cursor is an
arrow would exclaim, if presented with the pointer instead, "ohmigod!
what happened? where's my arrow?", whereas the complementary "huh? is
this button 'dead'?" reaction is fairly predictable.
Andrew
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