[Mailman-Developers] Drag and Drop Articles

[Laura Carlson]

--On Thursday, August 3, 2006 7:14 PM -0400 emf <i at mindlace.net>
wrote:

> Thanks so much for the docking-boxes hookup.
>
> ~ethan

fyi...some drag and drop usability articles:

Drag and Drop Controls
By Free Usability Advice.
"Question: Are there any usability issues with using drag and drop 
controls in a web application?"
Answer: "AJAX technology makes it easier to add drag and drop controls 
to a web application...Since web technologies haven't commonly 
supported drag and drop until now, it's difficult for users to 
understand when an object in the UI is draggable or droppable. It is 
especially difficult since the objects don't usually look different 
from objects that do not have this functionality. Adding visual 
affordances such as shading, cursor changes, text and other elements 
can help to communicate that an item is draggable...Before you decide 
to implement drag and drop, consider whether it is the right solution 
for your users. Don't just implement new technology for new 
technology's sake. If you do decide to use drag and drop functionality, 
make sure to give users a way to notice and learn the interaction."
http://freeusabilityadvice.com/archive/28/drag-and-drop-controls

Usability by Hand, AJAX and Efficiency
By Thomas Baekdal.
"We have seen a huge amount of drag and drop...Some work, some are very 
interesting, but most of them directly kill your efficiency...Take drag 
and drop shopping carts...drag and drop is over 1000% slower than 
clicking an 'add to cart' button."
http://www.baekdal.com/articles/Usability/usability-ajax-efficiency/

Drag 'n Drop is Invisible To Users
By Jared Spool.
"...They [Netflix] offers a margin feature that allows their users to 
see the top items in their movie queue. And, to give users that extra 
umph of interface goodness, you can reorder the queue with 
drag-and-drop. What Netflix figured out was that nobody else would 
figure it out unless they included instructions. So, that's exactly 
what they do. In a very concise box at the bottom of the list, they 
include a Helpful Tip that visually demonstrates the drag-and-drop 
capability."
http://tinyurl.com/h38kx

Laura
___________________________________________
Laura L. Carlson
Information Technology Systems and Services
University of Minnesota Duluth
Duluth, MN U.S.A. 55812-3009
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdesign/