[IxDA Discuss] About Double Clicking

[Juan Lanus]

Since 1998 I'm building desktop Windows applications that work as Jed
said, with a twist.
One click selects, chooses, for example a row in a grid, or a list
item. Then there is always a button (that enables upon selection)
labeles for example: "edit" with a tooltip like "edit the selected
<element>".
Or, users who want can double click and go directly to selection.

This was done for to make an application acesible to old people (70+)
with no previous PC experience, and it worked very well, leading to
almost zero training UIs.

Also, element can be selected with the arrow keys and "clicked" by
hitting enter, but few people use this idioms.

In short, leave the double click there but provide a natural
alternative that users can take without even noticing it.
Also, double-clicking a mouse requires a great deal of muscular coordination.
--
Juan Lanus
TECNOSOL
Argentina