Incidentally, analyzing input devices in terms of their
mathematical spatial properties reveals why Mouse
Gestures are fundamentally erroneous and doomed
to forever be nothing but a useless gimmick.
The mouse is characterized as a 2D _continuous_
input device. Almost 3D actually if you have a scroll
wheel, a fact which vindicates scroll wheels as an
important step forward in mouse design. A fact which
dooms the Ring Mouse and other genuine 3D devices
because ergonomic "almost 3D" trumps unergonomic
genuine 3D.
The keyboard is characterized as a 0D discrete input
device. You've got 100+ different discrete event triggers
on a keyboard. This fact condemns mouse buttons on
the mouse and all the "clever" little people who put ever
more useless buttons on them. The place for buttons is
the keyboard, not the mouse. If you use mouse buttons
in your UI (or paradigm) then you are doing something
wrong.
So where do Mouse Gestures fit in? They are an abomination.
They are discrete events triggered by continuous actions
in mindless mimicry of Sign Language. And why should
even deaf people use a constrained sign language through
their mouse when they have a keyboard? And why should
hearing people use sign language at all when the obvious
goal would be voice recognition (not even natural language
processing)?
All this from a dimensional analysis. Showing once again how
math trumps metaphor.
Just because human-computer interaction is at the intersect
of psychology and systems design, doesn't mean that you
should stick to the fuzzy wuzzies which is all the proto-
scientists have achieved in the field of psychology. You can
use math and logic and rigour and formal definitions - you
can use all of these things.
Richard Kulisz
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