The Mouse

We use the mouse almost everyday. Without it, it would not be possible to use the desktop computer.

Yesterday, my dad bought a new mouse.

It was a cool looking mouse by Apple. However, this mouse became the WORST mouse that he had ever used in his life. Now, we know that buying a mouse based on its physical appearance and not its features is something we should never do.

This "puck" mouse only had one button instead of the usual two button mouse. In addition, the puck mouse's button was not "click able", it was touch sensitive! Imagine how many wrong "clicks" my dad made in the course of ten minutes. (The amount of irritation one could bear: Every slightest touch of the button and you have made another click on another advertisement link) And if you were a regular user of the computer, you would have realized that it would be impossible to do any left or right mouse button clicks. No more cutting and pasting through the right mouse button, and more ctrl c(copy) and ctrl v(paste) keyboard shortcuts. Hence, the mouse was user unfriendly and not able to perform many functions.

My dad tried the puck mouse for a good hour and gave up on it, opened the drawer and there the mouse stayed (for a long time I would predict). Going for the good physical looks of the mouse was definitely the wrong way of buying a new mouse. Whats wrong with the good old fashion two button mouse? How about those with the additional middle scrollable button?


Not only did the bad design of the puck mouse irritate my dad, it also lowered his impression on the brand, Apple. He generalized all Apple products to be beautiful but useless. We all know this is not true; the Ipod speaks for itself. But this happens when brand or company produces a product with a lousy design.

Sometimes practicality comes before beauty, especially in the case of a computer mouse. Being a regular computer user, I would react in the exact same way as my dad. However, condemning all other Apple products was definitely over-reacting.

The mouse is a simple product and provides simple functions. Innovation and appearance are important, but the functionality and usability of the mouse are of the highest priority when is comes to designing a mouse . Hence, maintaining the Left and Right buttons on the mouse is a MUST. Also, since the fingers are constantly placed on these buttons, it is definite NO to touch sensitive buttons.

Anyhow, this mistake taught all of us what features to look in a mouse when buying one!