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In the design of an interactive system, it is normally good practice to make
the interface consistent with other interfaces of the same type that people
have used. A corollary of this rule is that when things are different, they
should be made different at the interface so people will notice the
difference. There are a few things about CASCADE that are different, and we
want to bring them to your attention:
- Most users have grown accustomed to double clicking on a PC when they
want to select something. At the current time, all selections in CASCADE are
accomplished with a SINGLE click. We have tried to make sure that double
clicking is ignored, but the user may encounter a situation, if the user does
double click, where CASCADE becomes confused because it interprets his/her
actions as two separate commands. Try to remember to always SINGLE click to
make a choice.
- CASCADE has no ``working'' indicator. Most systems provide a cursor
shape that tells the user the system is busy. (A rotating ball or an hour
glass.) We have put no such cursor in CASCADE. The reason for this, is that
our design goal and commitment is to always have CASCADE ready when the user
is. There should be no wait. Unfortunately, as we are developing CASCADE, we
sometimes put new code in for the user to use before it has been optimized.
This means that occasionally, the user will experience delays before CASCADE
acts, please let us know when this bothers you.
- CASCADE has made some changes in the normal positioning of things. For
example, the user will note when the user is viewing a document, that the
vertical scrollbar is on the left and not the right. The reason it was moved
was to allow users to quickly move within and between documents with minimal
mouse movements. Thus the scrollbar is located close to the document selection
window. As you begin to review many documents with lots of comments, we hope
you will agree that this makes sense.
- CASCADE relies a lot on colors for meaning. Humans have an ability to
process colors and color patterns with extreme speed. Much use of colors has
been made in CASCADE to allow the experienced user to quickly assess what is
going on. Keep in mind that CASCADE is for people that work a lot on group
documents. Unfortunately that means that it is optimized for experienced users
and will take a little time to get used to.
Next: Getting Started in
Up: The CASCADE System
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Previous: Color Use in
Michael Spring
Mon Dec 16 14:39:59 EST 1996