

One free interaction - bouncingsoul
http://www.cooper.com/journal/2009/01/one_free_interaction.html

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ObieJazz
_I noticed two friends who use their mouse to repeatedly select and deselect
text in web browsers as they read pages online. This is absolutely crazymaking
for onlookers, but really satisfying for them._

I do this all the time. I hadn't ever really thought about it.

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DaniFong
This drives everyone else crazy, except when I am doing it on the New York
Times website, in which case it tries to define all these words for me, which
drives _me_ crazy...

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MrGunn
Me too, Dani! Add
[http://graphics8.nytimes.com/js/common/screen/altClickToSear...](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/js/common/screen/altClickToSearch.js)
to your adblock filter and it will drive you crazy no more.

~~~
DaniFong
Thanks!

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jrockway
The article is a little GUI centric, but you can do this sort of thing in non-
GUI apps too. How many of you emacs users idly press "C-x C-s" when you are
sitting around thinking? I know I do it constantly. It feels good, and the
only side effect is the reassuring message "(No changes need to be saved)"

~~~
jadence
Yup. I do the same though I only end up annoying myself, much like the above
select-and-deselect-text posters when they're on nytimes.com, when I'm on the
scratch buffer and I keep getting the "File to save in:" prompt.

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jballanc
I find it most interesting that many of these interactions are analogues to a
petting motion. I don't think it's an accident that we find these petting
motions reassuring either. I would guess that it might have something to do
with nit-picking (think early ape-like ancestors), or possibly something to do
with bonding with dogs (who use rubbing motions of these sort to determine
pack order). Probably the former, since, while man's interaction with dog is
very old, it's probably not old enough to have evolved a self-gratifying
feedback loop.

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yters
I like gaming these free interactions. For instance, some computer track nubs
have an autocorrect that stops the mouse pointer moving if it moves at a
steady rate for long enough. The autocorrect puts an inverse velocity on the
mouse pointer, so if you hold the nub steadily to the side for long enough and
release, the mouse pointer moves on its own. I try to see how fast I can make
it automatically move.

Also, when I'm bored, I like jiggling the compviz windows. That truly is a
killer app.

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bemmu
Recently I installed a script on my website to track peoples' mouse movements.
First thing I noticed was a user just clicking around in circles in empty
space.

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gojomo
Seeing the headline, I thought 'one free interaction' was some sort of free-
trial business-model analysis.

Clicking through and seeing the context was UI, I then thought 'one free
interaction' was perhaps some sort of first-time-confirm of major or dangerous
operations, or a way to walk people through key steps once before they're
really used.

Turns out it's something else entirely... that's misnamed. I suggest instead
'playful interfaces' or 'fidget-friendly interaction'.

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nopassrecover
I think it's usually about being in control - Firefox 3 makes it even better
because of the faded visual drag representation.

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alabut
My pithy one line take on the article: try to keep interfaces and interactions
fun, not just easy to use.

