Andrew Maben wrote:
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
This is exactly my stance. I believe this common sense (now that
somebody's confirmed it's not the product of insanity!) has a duty to
override proprietary guidelines.
Regards,
Barney
*******************************************************************
List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm
Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*******************************************************************
