A Frustrating Problem with GUI Interaction: Is Anyone Else Annoyed?

[berkeman]

TL;DR Summary

On my PCs and phone, little attention seems to have been given by the GUI developers to keeping clickable/tapable content in the same place as the screen updates. This often leads to me clicking/tapping on the wrong thing as it updates as I try to select what was just there.

This has been a big annoyance for me for a while. I do some GUI development and programming for some of the Manufacturing Test Fixture programs that I develop, so I'm sensitive to making GUIs intuitive and easy to use.

But with many PC and phone interfaces (mainly browser-based), the program that is updating and managing the GUI seems to give little consideration to the interaction of the user with the GUI. So many times I'm about to click on a selection, and at the last nanosecond the GUI updates and moves the target selection down or someplace else and replaces it with something else. This usually results in me clicking/tapping on the wrong selection, sometimes to a catastrophic result ("delete all" or similar).

I thought about filing a patent application for a built-in timer for GUI updates and taps/clicks, but you would think somebody would have done that already. Am I the only one who is super-annoyed by this GUI misbehavior?

 

[Tom.G]

Summary:: On my PCs and phone, little attention seems to have been given by the GUI developers to keeping clickable/tapable content in the same place as the screen updates. This often leads to me clicking/tapping on the wrong thing as it updates as I try to select what was just there.

Am I the only one who is super-annoyed by this GUI misbehavior?

No!

 

[Baluncore]

It is an old trick. As you go to sign the document, the top sheet of paper is removed, leaving you to sign a slightly different document.

I think you will find that the update is being deliberately delayed until after you have clicked, then the box they want you to click is placed where your click was placed, making you think it was your mistake.

The system knows when you move the mouse into the box. It knows the average time you take to click. Once you have decided to click, the autonomous action takes about 0.25 seconds, during which you cannot change your mind and stop your muscle action.

When a card is physically turned and revealed on the table, the identity is predetermined. When a card is turned on the screen, the identity can be selected by software from a subset of possibilities, to deliberately help, or hinder your position.

Don't trust the bastards.

 

[anorlunda]

My guess is that most developers work using development machines that have very fast Internet. If they were forced to develop in slower, less capable environments, they would be more sympathetic.

Let's hear it: 110 baud for all developers!

 

[jedishrfu]

I think this is a feature of web-based GUIs and apps as the rendering engine is constantly updating to include new images some for the gui interface as they complete their download. There is a way to disable clicks... until after everything is downloaded but that power is given to the web page code and not the user.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/HTML/Howto/Author_fast-loading_HTML_pages

which shows a lot of stuff for developers to do if only they got paid to do it right vs fast.

 

[pbuk]

It is perfectly possible to avoid this so I think the only conclusion is that where it does happen it is deliberate. It used to be that a website could earn money by displaying advertisements; this is no longer the case, it is only possible to earn money by generating clicks on advertisements. Therefore a trick to get you to click on an advertisement unintentionally is worth doing.

The implementation of scroll anchoring in a number of modern browsers is an attempt to defeat this con. Alternatively, don't visit sites that use this trick and similar techniques: they can often be identified by their clickbait headlines and content.