Mouse-Click-less Design

We all know the inconvenience of working with applications that require too many mouse clicks to perform simple actions. With the mouse-click-less design tedious actions can be eliminated. In this post, I would like to stress the idea of designing a GUI that requires as few mouse clicks as possible. As an example, I will describe a simple mouse-click-less application “Measurement Table” I have designed more than 10 years ago.

The Measurement Table application allows converting length, weight, and temperature values between US Customary Units and Metric System without unnecessary mouse clicks. The idea of this unique design is to avoid mouse clicks by eliminating two actions: selecting “From” and “To” metrics. This application converts provided value to multiple conversion paths at once.

There are many existing applications on the market to convert measurement values, but most of them lack the mouse-click-less design, forcing users to do unnecessary clicking. A generic conversion application consists of the input form, two drop-downs, and the “convert” button:

In order to convert a value at least four or five clicks are required to select correct values in the drop-downs.

Here is a story that keeps my attention on mouse clickiness: when I was a student my computer mouse broke. This was a very bad news for my Windows 3.11 desktop and my student budget. I was forced to use Windows without a mouse for the whole month! I’ve learned all the Windows shortcuts and used a mouse emulator for actions without shortcuts. Working without a mouse made it obvious that some mouse clicks were not necessary and sometimes inconvenient in most workflows.

Summary: Evaluate your GUI design and pay attention to a number of mouse clicks. Now I would like to share my “Measurement Table” mouse click-less software with you. Feel free to bookmark this URL: https://www.readntry.com/mtable.htm  Please note that even though this simple app features a unique design it lacks some validation. For example, it may try to convert impossible values such as -300 degrees Celsius.

I hope reading this article was useful. Now try eliminating unnecessary mouse clicks from your application!