Why can't we live without a mouse?

With the PC into the tens of thousands of households, as one of the computer's main equipment of the mouse and desktop is also quickly popular in ordinary people, but you know how the mouse came out of it? Imagine a huge plastic box with a shiny glass screen, which almost occupies half of your desk. However, you can find a desktop on the surface of this spherical screen! Is this something that's not surprising? Who the hell came up with this idea? What the hell are they thinking? Why did they finally choose the desktop instead of the floor, the playground, the lawn or the river? Why do you have to open a window for this desktop? You may be more receptive to windows that are open on walls and not embedded on your desktop. Why is there still a litter box on the desktop? It would be more normal to put the trash bins on the floor.

Pull far, the author from the interactive design of the Father Bill Mogrich "desinging Interactions" found the answer.

1. Why do we need a mouse?

How do we choose tools when we learn to write? We choose to spend many years learning to use pencils, pens and even brushes. Sharpen your pencil so that you can use it to create the most accurate images or to write the smallest and finest letters. But it doesn't seem easy to do this task with the mouse.

Doug Engelbart [1] tells us the story of his invention of the mouse:

When he was a student, on one occasion, he needed to measure the area formed by the curve of many complex shapes. So he used a measuring tool with wheels that would scroll in the same direction, 90 degrees around the axis, and finally slide to the side. At a boring meeting, Doug Gees Engelbart wrote in his notebook: "You can have a good angle for two wheels so that they can move along the trajectory of the plane." Years later, when he was thinking about how to select a certain target on the computer screen, he suddenly remembered the notes and invented the world's first mouse with Bill Ying. However, we chose the mouse not only because Doug Engelbart invented it, but more importantly, it is indeed the best click tool for the computer screen. It goes beyond the photoelectric pen, cursor keys, joystick, trackball, and other a series of tools that were used by users in earlier tests. The mouse made the final victory, for the simple reason that it was best used.

As we prepared for the experiment, I suddenly remembered what I had recorded in my notebook a few years ago, and made a general description of Bill Ying. Bill Ying was an experimental engineer who, with the help of several plotters and mechanics, put one of his programs into the experiment. Coincidentally, the program we used for the experiment passed all the tests. Finally, it becomes the user interface's indicator tool.

2. "Mouse" standard

Someone, I don't remember who it is, name this device a mouse. You can draw on the paper to know why the name: it is the size of the mouse, there is a choice for the button, the body behind the long wire drag. "It looks like a mouse with an ear!" Someone shouted. Since then, all of us have started to call it the mouse.

3. Desktop metaphor

Tim Motte Describes how he thought of turning the desktop into an "office sketch". In this "office", people can operate all the files on the desktop, use the mouse to pick up or move them. The user can put the file in a folder, throw it in the bin, or print it out. An important thing in the office is the desktop, which has a calendar, alarm clock, and an email inbox.

One afternoon I was waiting for a friend in the bar and I was thinking about it while doodling on my napkin. I was fascinated by the design and spent most of my time on it. I was thinking: what should be the situation in the office? Someone got a file that needed to be filed, he went to the filing cabinet and inserted the file into it. If he needs to copy the document, he will go to the copier and finish the work. Or if he wants to throw the file away, they'll throw it in the trash can under the table.

I sat there, thinking about the problem while scribbling on the paper. Finally on the napkin is what Larry and I call "office schematics": it contains a filing cabinet, a copier, and may in some cases also contain a printer and a trash can. My idea is that all files can be dragged around the screen with the mouse. Instead of imagining it as a desktop, we thought we could move the files in the office. They can be dragged into a filing cabinet, printed or thrown into a dustbin.

The desktop is part of our design, with things you can see on the real-life desktop, like a calendar, a clock, and a mail box-to control all emails.

Doug Engelbart and Bill Ying The invention of the mouse to the PARC (Xerox Parker Research Center) their colleague Stu was sent to assist in their experiments, so that they can better understand the input device performance of some basic science, and the mouse a series of conceptual design.

4. Double click, cut, Paste and cursor

And for the specific operation of the mouse, Larry Thelles for us to tell the story of his invention double-click:

When I finished writing the Miki Mouse program, the question I thought about was what this hardware could be used for. We usually use three buttons on the mouse, but I really want to design a mouse that contains only one button, I want people to use the mouse when using other devices, such as: WordPad, touch screen and photoelectric pen. And if you're using a triple-key mouse, you can't use these things. Another reason is that when people use a software, they prefer to use a hand to manipulate the mouse, to complete the screen selection work, while the other hand to operate the keyboard or 5-key keyboard. I think if we can clearly separate the two hands in the operation of the task, it will greatly reduce the misuse of people. In the course of five of operations, people will at least once complain: "Oh, God, I pressed the wrong button again." "That's why you have to practice multiple times to master the NLS system and often press the wrong key."

"Maybe we can use the first key to position the cursor in the middle of two words," I thought, "Use the second key to select a word, and then use the third key to select a sentence or something else." When I was with Tim, I said, "I don't like this way at all, I'd rather have a button on my mouse." ”

One morning Tim came in and said, "I see, you can double click!" You hit the button two times in a short time to select a word and hit it three times to select a sentence. ”

"Two times seems feasible, but of course it cannot be three times." "I said. I gave the reason why he could not be three times, but when I closed my eyes and imagined the scenes so used, I had to admit: "That's good, it's good to use a double click to select a Word." ”

We invited some secretaries and asked them to try, and each of them thought it was good. The programmers then made a lot of improvements to it, but overall it was destined to be a good thing from the start.

The above is translated from the first chapter of "Designing Interactions".