JQuery PointPoint – A Plugin For Pointing To Things | Hacker News Reader

JQuery PointPoint – A Plugin For Pointing To Things

tutorialzine.com

27 pointsg-garron16 comments

I went to the demo, saw the button, pushed it, got confused, and finally read the description of what exactly the plugin was supposed to do, at which point I went back to the demo and noticed the little arrow.

As an unprimed user, I did not even see that arrow. However, you could always make it larger and more contrasting.

It doesn't help that the arrow only appears once you move the cursor -- when the page starts up, it's not there.

That might not be fixable. IIRC you can't directly poll for the pointer's position so the first time you have any clue is the first mouse-move (or button press) event you see once the user starts doing something after your event hooks are in place.

I did exactly the same thing. I can't see this being a useful plugin as it stands and I've never seen something like this in any UI either. Something like a shake or highlight would work better.

I could see it being useful in a html/javascript based game or something.

This is pretty cool. Sure you can make your UX completely intuitive and accessible to everyone from 5 year olds to grandmas and everyone in between, but not all of us are that capable.

I see this as like the "guiding light" on modern video games when you're confused on where to go or what to do next.

For extra hand-holding I would actually enhance the plugin to highlight the target element and have feedback when the pointer and target come together. Also if there's a specific action that's supposed to occur (click, hover, etc) that a guide shows up when the cursor reaches the target.

I don't want to play down the project, but...

For quite a while I didn't understand the purpose of the project. I opened the demo page and found a nice HUGE and RED button in the middle. Clicked it. Nothing happened.. Searched for clues (you know, mouse still hovering over the button) - no idea.

I only noticed the arrow by accident, when I wanted to leave the site for good. And even then it was far to subtle for me..

The demo could use more work to better represent the problem that the project is trying to solve. It makes it seem as if the button is going to kick the demo off.

What might be better is some sort of "Find Waldo" and the mouse pointer guides you to him. Or a pseudo-tutorial that it helps you walk through.

I am fascinated because the demo and presentation was probably a lot more work than creating the plugin itself? (Is it basically an arrow always pointing to the same point?)

I came here to say the same thing. Nice demo and site - don't think I'd ever have a use though.

It could probably be argued that needing this plugin is actually a symptom that you need to rethink some part of your UI. If an element is important enough to be pointed out like this, it should perhaps feature more prominently in the layout.

agreed

Just to explain why I downvoted you, since you're new here: on HN, if you agree with a comment, you should upvote the comment. Writing a comment whose only content is stating agreement is very frowned upon.

He wrote the comment for the same reason that you wrote yours. Comment scores are hidden and the meaning of an upvote is hidden both from the commenter and other users.

With hidden upvotes the only way to show assent is to comment. Actually as a hack for no comment scores I think I could come to appreciate a string of "agreed" comments as a visual indicator.

It's redundant elsewhere, it's not here.

If the pointer is permanently turned on, then yes, totally. I can see it being useful for tutorials, though.

Right — if you're that sure what the next step is, why not take it automatically, or make the entire screen clickable? I guess I miss the "point."

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