Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!mcvax!ukc!its63b!hwcs!gilbert
From: gilbert@cs.hw.ac.uk (Gilbert Cockton)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: introducing use of a mouse
Message-ID: <1768@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk>
Date: 7 Apr 88 09:26:08 GMT
References: <987@pbhyc.PacBell.COM> <951@daisy.UUCP>
Reply-To: gilbert@cs.hw.ac.uk (Gilbert Cockton)
Organization: Computer Science, Heriot-Watt U., Scotland
Lines: 26

In article <951@daisy.UUCP> klee@daisy.UUCP (Ken Lee) writes:
>The mouse is a tool, not an end to itself.  Learning to use the mouse
>must take place within the context of the application.
>a keyboard differs quite a bit between applications that use it for text

The mouse is not always an obvious tool.  See Card, Moran and Newell chapter on
input devices in the Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction  
(Lawrence Erlbaum). The chapter all too briefly hints at some of the problems 
which novices had with mice.  I have observed some of them myself.

Common problems are:
	* having the tail point towards you (hold mouse wrong way around)
	* treating mouse as absolute, not relative positioning device.
	   Mouse kept on pad/confusion when mouse forced up against keyboard
	   Can you really lift it up and put it back?
	* treating mouse as non-mechanical/optical device
	   Mouse expected to work off pad/surface
	* difficulty in adapting to tracking behaviour, especially with 
	  software cursors. Mouse is an indirect pointing device with
	   variable  control to display ratio

In a nutshell, users WILL form application independent models of mice which
are wrong.  A very short fact sheet will help them to develop a proper model 
of the mouse in question.  Any human factors specialist should know enough 
about input devices to anticipate many of the problems.  There are mnay survey 
papers here