Control Option
The phone is ringing again. When I pick it up, the owner of the voice in my ear is clearly at his wit’s end. He’s not just mad at his computer, he’s pissed at his computer.
Any designer could benefit from a stint in tech support. The in-the-trenches view of user behavior, along with an audience close enough to take a swing and actually connect, is priceless. Lessons meted out at the hands of Mother Experience. “No, toasters don’t make great bathtub accessories. Ask us how we know.”
Which always takes me back to this memory from an office far, far away, during a distant, earlier epoch of my life.
Gimme Input
In his office, faced with the offending machine, we begin The Assessment.
No matter where he clicks, a contextual menu is popping up. Plain old single-button mouse connected to a perfectly innocent looking Mac. Angry jabs at the mouse ensue as he demonstrates. Click—pop, a menu on the desktop. Click—pop, another menu on the desktop.
I’m standing just to the side of his desk, frozen in place, mouth hanging ever so slightly agape. Before my mind could even begin it’s customary scroll through the exotic points-of-failure checklist, the eyes had done a scan of the scene and returned back with a full report. I’m still standing where that report halted me.
Really? Another quick glance, just to be sure. Yes… really.
An awkward moment passes.
I lean forward, and with both hands gingerly pick up the book that’s sitting on the edge of his keyboard—plunked directly on top of the Control key.
10 Comments
Jussi said:
Funny, I had only read the headline of your post when my wife shouted from across the room “What’s wrong with this mouse?!? When I click it pops up a menu and when I scroll it zooms in! Argh!”
The other end of the wireless keyboard that’s connected to our Mac was under a cushion that was pressing down, you guessed it, the Control key.
Couldn’t help laughing when I got back to reading your post. :-)
Jussi said:
Hmm.. as these Control issues really do exist, could there be a need for some sort of “check if any key modifier has been used with all the mouse and key clicks during the last x minutes/hours, and if so, ask whether it is intentional” thingie in the OS? (Especially with wireless keyboards this seems to be an issue as you can easily browse the net with a mouse only and you never know where the keyboard is or who’s sitting on top of it.)
Just a thought..
Angelo said:
priceless.
i’ve found that 9/10 times, it’s probably user error. it’s that tenth time that makes life interesting.
David Sleight said:
Jussi: In the old days they called it a “stuck key failure.”
In any system there are simply some basic conventions that you can rightfully expect users have to learn. Like, “Look both ways before crossing the street,” or “The business end of the gun faces away from you.”
David Sleight said:
Angelo: I don’t mean to come down hard on users. I found more often than not it actually wasn’t the user’s fault—something we need to remember as designers. Don’t devise traps they’re guaranteed to fall into. This case was just (spectacularly) exceptional.
Pete said:
At a previous place of employment, I encountered this exact problem, except that the key in question was the Print Screen key.
And the active window was a DOS app.
And the printer was a network printer attached to a crusty old Novell server.
Lesson? Print queue + 147,000-some print jobs = server no workie.
David Sleight said:
Printer says, “Please kill me.”
Jussi said:
However, people make mistakes, and accidents happen. Even when crossing the street. That’s why we sometimes have traffic lights near schools. (Ok, not the best possible analogy.. :-) )
But you’re probably right. I can’t really see people doing this sort of mistake several times, and not realizing what’s going on.
Ron said:
David, this is certainly not coming down hard on the user. People DO make mistakes, and accidents DO happen, but at some point users should have to exhibit some semblance of common sense (even though McDonald’s is required to advise customer’s that coffee is hot).
This problem was solved with a quick visual inspection – which should naturally be the first thing anyone does.
Jussi said:
What makes it tricky, though, is that users with Windows background and a normal 2-button PC mouse might have no clue that keyboard can change the behavior of the mouse.