The Graham Smith Site

Browsing the iTunes App store today, I’m reminded how much the interface has improved in so short a time. One hefty re-design and a handful of minor improvements dotted around the place have made it a joy to use. But my favourite aspect, oddly, is the increase in sideways scrolling elements.

Windows users may not share my enthusiasm for such frivolities, as their mice often involve ‘scroll wheels’ that limit such side-to-side motions, leaving them to uncover the wonders of a scroll bar. But interacting with them using my lovely new Magic Mouse has made it trivial. Brushing a finger sideways over the mouse is just as comfortable as scrolling up and down. Even in my days of using the Mighty Mouse, and its somewhat unreliable nipple, the action became nearly second nature. Now I barely realise I’m doing it.

I’m guessing Apple know this. Previously, examining screenshots of Apps required clicking arrows, but as their last two generations of mice included such a lovely mechanism, they’ve really taken liberties, and I’m happy they did.

It doesn’t stop there though. With the ability to scroll ‘with momentum’ (the page slowly scrolls to a stop), now afforded by the Magic Mouse, getting around the page is more fluid, and easier to get to the tops and bottoms of said page without the need for a ‘back to top’ link. Macs also have a feature sorely lacking in Windows machines which allows you to scroll pages of a window which is out of focus. When I move my mouse over a scrollable area, I don’t have to click on it to scroll it.

I can’t bear to browse the internet on my Windows machine at home anymore because it feels so clunky, looks ugly, and lacks lots of features that improve my usability in ways I hadn’t realised from all my time with a Mac.