thou shalt put the scrollbar on the left

Dan Ingalls DanI at wdi.disney.com
Thu Feb 19 19:10:48 UTC 1998


(Useful content:  low...;-)

>> From the earliest days, Smalltalk used flop-out scroll-bars to economize
>> on screen real estate.  Flop-out scroll bars do not work on the right
>> because they obscure the left side of the next pane over, where you do
>> all your quick recognition.
>
>	That's very interesting. As someone who does one-hand pointing with the
>right hand, with copious screen real estate, the cognitive dissonance of
>"reaching over" to the left cancels those benefits for me. It feels as
>awkward to me as reaching over something I'm looking at in "real life" with
>my arm to manipulate it (but not quite as awkward as this sentence :).

Well, I would have to agree with you, now.  When we were developing Smalltalk, we were using mice, and already in a slightly indirect space (and one where movement was an issue).

>I get a similar feeling of unnecessary occlusion (in real life, my right arm
>would be blocking what I'm trying to see). It's almost as bad for me as
>using a touch-screen interface where my fingers cover up what I'm trying to
>see, in the process of actuation.

Yes, and with pens a scrollbar on the left is awful for a righty, and vice-versa.

Now, the really weird thing is that the most intuitive cursor shape (arrow or finger pointing in the direction of your hand) is the easiest to cover up, and hence hardest to use on touch screens and pen screens.  It makes you want a cursor that is curved around like a lefty writing left-to-right (or a righty writing right to left!).  TANSTAAFL.

	- Dan





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