Picking Time | Hacker News Reader

Picking Time

ejohn.org

53 pointsbdfh4219 comments

Definitely looks pretty; it's very slick - but I disagree with the article; actually I didn't find it as usable as a mere text box.

Now, that's anecdotal, but without usability testing rather than opinion, you shouldn't choose this widget over and above existing familiar ones unless "looking slick" is your primary goal.

When I saw this, I was inspired to make a proof-of-concept for an alternative, and IMHO more intuitive, GUI-metaphor.

Watch-style time selector: http://holding.biplane.dk/watch/

that's kinda cool actually.

Perhaps not quite as polished - but I'm still impressed.

You know, with some polish and maybe less clicks (somehow), this is downright intuitive and quick to do. Nice work!

Like the concept, but it violates Fitts' law. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts%27_law )

I don't want to make precise movements with my mouse. Buttons should be large and margins between buttons should keep me from accidentally clicking the wrong one. The time picker fails on both counts.

Also, first picking AM/PM before you pick the hour is confusing. Add to that that the control is huge, so it wouldn't fit in any normal web forms.

Good exercise in UI design, but I hope no web-app will ever force me to use it.

It demonstrates to me that "hover" has a comparable cognitive load to "click." And that's just not worth the cost of changing conventions.

Not very accessible - what if you're using a touch screen? Not everything has 'hover' functionality.

It looks like it's completely broken on the iPhone (at least my v1.1 browser). In this case though, it could just not pop up the boxes.

I would hope that other touchscreen devices advertise their (lack of) capability in the user agent.

I'd imagine this is especially helpful on a touch-screen. The sub-menus can be activated on touch.

For a mouse-click, however, maybe a mouse-gesture--circular-selector is even more quick.

When I click on a sub-menu, they disappear. So I'd say it's broken for touch-screens.

Also posted at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=360490

I have to take issue with, "One thing that you'll notice using it is that it's fast. Very fast. I'd argue much faster than clicking into the input area, moving to the keyboard for entering the time, typing the time, then moving back to mouse." This may be true but is it faster than tabbing to the input box, typing in the time and then tabbing to the next field? It's a nice addition but I'm glad you can still tab, type and tab away.

Yeah, very much. It's good as a replacement for all-mouse systems but not all-keyboard ones.

Similar GUI concept to navigating nested menus, adapted for a new purpose.

ie: The top-level menu choice is AM or PM, then there are 12 sub-menus, and each has identically named set of sub-sub-menus (00, 15, 30, 45).

EDIT a difference is that it remembers the (sub-)submenu chosen when you change a higher-level menu.

Didn't work for me (FF2, linux).

EDIT no, it does. You have to hover and wait. When you click, it sets the time. (I was clicking immediately.)

AH: the confusing thing is that it is already "open" when I visit the webpage. But the instructions say you have to click it first to open it.

Didn't work in IE7 for me but did in FF3

I feel that the concept is in the right path, but it could be improved... don't know exactly how, maybe using circular shapes to resemble a clock, avoiding the sub-selectors disappear when the mouse moves, and adding keyboard support.

Not sure this scales well to 24 hour clock as used almost everywhere but the US.

I didn't find it as usable as John describes. May be it's just me.

Kudos for providing a 24-hour clock as well as am/pm. Too many developers stick to what's used in their own country and not caring about the rest of the world.

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