Feature Request: Fullscreen view does not consider Fitts' law

[Dhakir]

Binary package hint: evince

Fullscreen toolbar buttons have a "one-pixel border" on their corners. This border goes against Fitts' law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts'_law), which, when applied to mouse-based user interfaces, states that buttons near the edges of the screen should be able to be activated on the edge itself, without requiring the user to move back one pixel. To sum up, this is one of the factors that make a difference between good interfaces (Mac menus, for instance) and "less-good" ones (Windows menus).

For instance, both upper and lower panels in Gnome do not have such borders, making it much easier to hit targets in these bars (requiring less effort and speeding up interaction). Thus there is also an inconsistence in evince.

These modifications should be easily done in many programs and constitute a significant effort/gain ratio in terms of usability.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Nov 27 23:11:54 2007
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/evince
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx ath_hal
Package: evince 2.20.1-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcCmdline: /usr/bin/evince /tmp/Aulas\ 5e6\ -\ parte1.pdf
ProcCwd: /home/andre
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games:/usr/local/java/bin:/usr/local/java/jre/bin:/opt/SUNWappserver/bin
 LANG=en_US.ISO-8859-1
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: evince
Uname: Linux hpnc 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Sun Oct 14 23:05:12 GMT 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

[Dhakir (dhakir)]

I actually meant "significant gain/effort ratio".

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thanks for your report.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

May you please take a screenshot showing the issue?, thanks.

[Dhakir (dhakir)]

Unfortunately I cannot find an easy way of printing a screenshot while maintaining the mouse pointer on the screen and/or the highlighted region. When I try using the PrtScr key, the cursor changes and the previously highlighted button loses the focus.

Actually, it's quite simple to reproduce it: while in full screen mode, mouse the mouse to the upper right corner (the very last pixel). Try clicking, and you'll notice the button won't be activated. Then move one pixel left and one pixel down, and the button will be highlighted, indicating it can be activated. The "Close button" here is not the best example, but the previous/next page buttons are more frequently used and would benefit from this as well.

What seems to be a design feature to prevent "accidental" clicks, is actually a design flaw, since it slows down users, according to Fitts' law. It's very subtle and most developers believe "this is just not important", but considering it's relatively easy to change it's a detail that adds up to the quality of the interface.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Right this doesn't happens with eog, will forward upstream to see what they think about it, thanks you!.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

I've sent this upstream at: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=500702 ; thanks!.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Fixed upstream, thanks!.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the bug should be fixed in hardy, feel free to reopen if you still get the issue using the new versions though