Point and click

For the genre of video game, see Adventure game § Point-and-click adventure games.

Point and click are the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (pointing) and then pressing a button on a mouse, usually the left button (click), or other pointing device. An example of point and click is in hypermedia, where users click on hyperlinks to navigate from document to document.

Point and click can be used with any number of input devices varying from mouses, touch pads, trackpoint, joysticks, scroll buttons, and roller balls.

User interfaces, for example graphical user interfaces, are sometimes described as "point-and-click interfaces", often to suggest that they are very easy to use, requiring that the user simply point to indicate their wishes. These interfaces are sometimes referred to condescendingly (e.g., by Unix users) as "click-and-drool" or "point-and-drool" interfaces.

The use of this phrase to describe software implies that the interface can be controlled solely through the mouse (or some other means such as a stylus), with little or no input from the keyboard, as with many graphical user interfaces.

A web browser tooltip displayed for a hyperlink.

In some systems, such as Internet Explorer, moving the pointer over a link (or other GUI control) and waiting for a split-second (that can range from 0.004 to 0.7 s) can cause a tooltip to be displayed.

Double click

Main article: Double click

A double click is most commonly used with a computer mouse when the pointer is placed over an icon or object and the button is quickly pressed twice. This action, when performed without moving the location of the mouse, will produce a double click.

Fitts's Law

Fitts's law can be used to quantify the time required to perform a point-and-click action.

$T=a+b\log _{2}{\Bigg (}1+{\frac {D}{W}}{\Bigg )}$ where:

• $T$ is the average time taken to complete the movement.
• $a$ represents the start/stop time of the device and $b$ stands for the inherent speed of the device. These constants can be determined experimentally by fitting a straight line to measured data.
• $D$ is the distance from the starting point to the center of the target.
• $W$ is the width of the target measured along the axis of motion. $W$ can also be thought of as the allowed error tolerance in the final position since the final point of the motion must fall within $\pm {\frac {W}{2}}$ of the target's centre.

See also

• Double-click
• Triple-click
• Mouse chording
• Drag and drop
• Click here
• Graphical user interface
• 1-Click (one-click buying)
• Point-and-click adventure game

External links

• Institute for Interactive Research, website interface without any mechanisms to click on for a different way of navigation
• Online Mouse Tester Tool