[IxDA Discuss] About Double Clicking

[jed at id.iit.edu]

Quoting Cindy Lu <cindylu01 at gmail.com>:

> It looks single clicking for selecting and double clicking for
> activating model works (based on my limited observations).

For almost 4 years we used double-click in a web application. Users could click
a folder to select it, which would show its contents, or double-click it to
rename the folder. We never found problems nor received complaints about the
interaction in general, possibly because the folders had a default label of
"Double-click to name."

We did, however, get occasional complaints from people simply not being able to
double-click. We weren't able to tap into the built-in standard OS double-click
event, and our best attempts at making a solid, bomb-proof never-fail
double-click detector still seemed to fail some fraction of a percentage of the
time.

A few months ago we moved to a slightly different approach. If the folder is not
selected, clicking on it selects it and displays its contents. If the folder is
selected, clicking on it makes the name editable. In essence, we've set up a
"double-click" with unlimited time in between clicks, if that makes sense. So
far this seems to be working well.

Regards,
-Jed