Command Slash (fill and submit) and mouse cursor

SteveSalt

<div class="IPBDescription">why is menu at mouse cursor?</div>Is there a way to keep the dropdown menu in the same spot every time i invoke command slash? If i have more than one login for a site (me, my wife, personal or business etc) i have to look for where the mouse cursor is (which could be anywhere on the screen) which kills time. If it was always in the same spot, i could always look there even as i hit the keyboard command.



(btw, a forum search returns and error for "fill and submit" so i apologize if this answer is out there..."One or all of your search keywords were below 4 characters or you searched for words which are not allowed, such as 'html', 'img', etc, please increase the length of these search keywords or choose different keywords.")

khad

Hey SteveSalt,



Thanks for asking! According to [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts's_law"]its Wikipedia entry[/url], "Fitts's Law is a model of human movement in human-computer interaction and ergonomics which predicts that the time required to rapidly move to a target area is a function of the distance to and the size of the target."



Thus the quickest way to get to where you want to click is by having a menu where your cursor already is. Regardless of where it is you can simply move the cursor down slightly to make a selection. This is the same reason that Mac OS X supports active screen corners. They essentially have infinite target area. You just throw your cursor towards a corner and because OS X will not let you "overshoot" your cursor nestles right where it needs to be with minimal effort. You can read a lot of great interaction research and documentation just Googling for Fitts's Law. I especially enjoy Bruce Tognazzini's "[url="http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html"]A Quiz Designed to Give You Fitts[/url]."



I do not believe this has been covered in the forums, so thanks for bringing it up! <img src='http://forum.agile.ws/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/skype_smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':-)' />



I hope that helps. Please let me know!

SteveSalt

I'm not sure why a keyboard command has to rely on the mouse? Seems counter-useful.



This Law assumes two things:



1) That I was using a mouse at the time ("to get to where you want to click")...i don't wish to click, i'm using the keyboard, thus the need to remove my hand from the keyboard to the mouse loses time

2) That I know where the cursor is at the time. Although tossing it in the corner is a possible workaround, as i use another corner for screensaver locking, it still requires the removal a hand from the keyboard to the mouse to throw in a corner then go back to the keyboard to invoke the cmd-/. I might as well just go to the 1P menu button with the mouse in the first place.



Regardless of Fitt's Law, human interaction with the Dropdown menus at the top of screen being triggered by keyboard commands with the dropdown menu staying with the top-level menu has been ingrained through OS/software fuse and Web site navigation menu use. I would think there could be an option in the 1P prefs to have a cursor dropdown as is (which is not to far off from a Right-Click in Finder) or trigger the 1P button logo at the top as it does when clicked.



Thoughts?

[Deleted User]

Steve,



I think it all comes down to how different users interact with 1Password, that's why there are 3 ways to fill your logins within the browser, not counting 'Go & Fill'.



If you think about the average user's behaviour when they login to a site, and I'll admit I do this too, they click within the login field and begin typing, or in this case use the Command + \ shortcut, so at that point the menu pops up exactly where their cursor is and they can either use the keyboard or move the mouse or scroll the trackpad (I'm using a Magic Trackpad here, such a great device) to select the login they want.



Of course you can also right-click and select the 1Password sub-menu anywhere on the page as well as using the main 1P button in the toolbar. I can certainly see how having the option to have the keyboard shortcut trigger the drop-down from the 1P button would be helpful, but do remember that the Command+\ only shows you a list of logins that match the page you're on precisely.



Just my thoughts on this, I'm not a user experience expert but I have used 1Password for a number of years and I guess I've gotten used to the way it works.







[quote name='SteveSalt' timestamp='1287492639' post='13592']

I'm not sure why a keyboard command has to rely on the mouse? Seems counter-useful.



This Law assumes two things:



1) That I was using a mouse at the time ("to get to where you want to click")...i don't wish to click, i'm using the keyboard, thus the need to remove my hand from the keyboard to the mouse loses time

2) That I know where the cursor is at the time. Although tossing it in the corner is a possible workaround, as i use another corner for screensaver locking, it still requires the removal a hand from the keyboard to the mouse to throw in a corner then go back to the keyboard to invoke the cmd-/. I might as well just go to the 1P menu button with the mouse in the first place.



Regardless of Fitt's Law, human interaction with the Dropdown menus at the top of screen being triggered by keyboard commands with the dropdown menu staying with the top-level menu has been ingrained through OS/software fuse and Web site navigation menu use. I would think there could be an option in the 1P prefs to have a cursor dropdown as is (which is not to far off from a Right-Click in Finder) or trigger the 1P button logo at the top as it does when clicked.



Thoughts?

[/quote]

khad

And don't forget that you never have to move your hand from the keyboard to select one of the logins that pressing Command-\ pops up. Simply use the arrow keys. It's not exactly what you were looking for, SteveSalt, but it does not require the mouse.

SteveSalt

Hey! Just testing the Chrome extension, well, just testing Chrome itself now b/c i waited for 1P to work (effortlessly on my part) with Chrome. Any thoughts of making the menu in other browsers behave more like the Chrome extension? Big-ish window and quite visible.

khad

We'll take that "effortlessly" comment as a great compliment. Thank you! <img src='http://forum.agile.ws/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/skype_smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':-)' />



There may be some changes in store for our other extensions since the Chrome extension required a complete rewrite of a lot of code, and, of course, any time you do that you learn some things and make some changes that would be nice to introduce across the board. No promises — certainly not anything specific — but there is a distinct possibility.



Thanks for letting us know what you would like to see! Feedback is always appreciated.