[RESEARCH] Where does your mouse pointer rest when not in use?

[alvevind]

Mark Shuttleworth is wants us to collect research data about people's mouse usage.

The purpose of his poll is to gather data about where on the screen the mouse pointer rests when it is not doing anything productive on the screen (not clicking buttons, dragging scrollbars, etc).

The main variables we want to measure are:
M) Pointer tends to rest near the menu of the active window.
L) Pointer tends to rest on the left side of the screen.
C) Pointer tends to rest in the center of the screen.
R) Pointer tends to rest on the right side of the screen.
X) None of these.

We are also interested in knowing what type of pointing device you are using (to see if there is a difference):
M) Normal mouse
T) Laptop touchpad (or other device)

Please take a few minutes to observe where your mouse pointer tends to fall to rest, while you are doing your most common computer activities (websurfing/reading/writing/etc).

We might expand upon this poll later on to get more correlation data.

Please note: If you are using the scroll wheel to scroll a page or are using other special function buttons on your mouse but are not actively clicking or moving anything on the screen using the mouse pointer arrow, then we still consider your mouse pointer to be at rest and want to know where on the screen it is resting (on average).

Also note: We are mostly interested in answers based on using the standard released version of Ubuntu (not beta versions, highly customized desktops or other OS).

(It has been suggested to use a tool called IOGraphica. See this post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1439695&page=6#52 )

[_h_]

I can't really say, since I usually let it stay wherever I happen to stop it, which is in completely random spots most of the time.

[alvevind]

I can't really say, since I usually let it stay wherever I happen to stop it, which is in completely random spots most of the time.

That is still a valid answer and a valuable piece of information. What we are interested in is where the mouse is when it is not doing anything productive (not clicking, dragging, etc).

If the location seems completely random all the time, simply choose the "None of these" option.

What this poll really tries to answer is:
Does there exist a general pattern?
Or does there exist several patterns?
Or is there no pattern at all?

[mrdiego]

Thx alvevind for this threat. It looks interesting. I choosed "Normal mouse. left", because if I am scrolling I let the mousepoint on the right side of screen. But since the new change I DO operations on the left side (tabs, toolbar, ...) and let the mouse, mostly!, in the range where the important things are together. Also I changed my habits and have it the most time on left. This trick is good for me and I have shorter mouseways. But I noticed that the mouse is sometimes in the center, too.

[_h_]

If the location seems completely random all the time, simply choose the "None of these" option.

I can't vote, since there's no option for none of these for both mouse and touchpad. :P

[Npl]

Statistically on the right side, but only since usually thats where the scrollbar sits.
I dont know if I do that unconsciously even without scrollbar, I doubt it as I usually have to find the pointer if I did nothing for a while.

[hessiess]

I never use the mouse, the cursor is banished to the bottom right where it cannot be seen.

[DoktorSeven]

I basically push it away from the keyboard when I take my hand off of it to type, thus placing the pointer on the right side of the screen relative to where it was last used. Possibly has to do with me using the mouse on the right side of my keyboard, since it's a subconscious thing to push it away from what I'm about to use to give myself room. It'd probably be pushed off left if I used it on the left side for whatever reason.

[alvevind]

I can't vote, since there's no option for none of these for both mouse and touchpad. :P

Answer based on what you are using 51% of the time or more. ;-)

[mick222]

wherever it lands usually towards the left hand side

[Owen.C93]

Most content is on the right so I leave my mouse out of the way on the left. That way scrolling doesn't change the mouse because of hyper links or similar.

Using a touch pad and it's much easier that way. However the thing with a touch pad is for right hand users you have to "push" your finger if you wanted to go to the top left. This means you have to use more strain and increases chances of accidental clicking on the way there. Incredibly awkward for me.

[appier]

Using a normal mouse, my mouse usually rests on or near the scrollbar which I use extensively when word processing or correcting eschool work.

[Simian Man]

I never use the mouse, the cursor is banished to the bottom right where it cannot be seen.

I rarely use the mouse either, but am distracted by the cursor if it's in my way. I used to always put it in the bottom right, but now I use a program called unclutter. It doesn't seem to have a webpage, but it's probably in the Ubuntu repos. Anyway add:


unclutter -idle 1 &

to your auto-started applications and the mouse will be hidden when not in use for one second.

Now I no longer move the mouse to the bottom right, but let it disappear wherever.

[blur xc]

Mine ends up on the right side of the screen, maybe because I'm right handed, I don't know- but wouldn't it be possible to write a simple mouse pointer location logging program that could collect data about where the mouse is the most of the time?

BM

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

I do not have a preferred location. It is left wherever it was when the last event was initiated. If it is in the way of what I am doing, I move it. It does not make a difference if I am using a mouse or touch pad. If I am using the CLI then I position it somewhere outside the terminal window.

[del_diablo]

It just rests where i left it, unless it blocks some text i am reading or draws up some random annoying, which in case its moved barely anything.
Oh btw: Its on the left side since about that was done happend on the left side-.

[Maheriano]

I'm pretty sure my case is similar for most computer geeks:

When reading a forum or browsing any page with consistent symmetrical lines on the screen, I try to place my mouse pointer between the lines as neatly as possible. Then I click the mouse wheel up and down until the pointer rests across a line. I then return to the original resting position and adjust the location up/down while staying inside the lines and click the wheel again to see if I can avoid coming to rest on the same line.

Does this make me weird?

[schauerlich]

You could ask people to use a mouse tracking program like this (http://dottech.org/freewaresr/13865) and have them send in the images it produces. That way the data is somewhat less subjective.

[Anzan]

Mark Shuttleworth is wants us to collect research data about people's mouse usage.

The purpose of his poll is to gather data about where on the screen the mouse pointer rests when it is not doing anything productive on the screen (not clicking buttons, dragging scrollbars, etc).

The main variables we want to measure are:
M) Pointer tends to rest near the menu of the active window.
L) Pointer tends to rest on the left side of the screen.
C) Pointer tends to rest in the center of the screen.
R) Pointer tends to rest on the right side of the screen.
X) None of these.

We are also interested in knowing what type of pointing device you are using (to see if there is a difference):
M) Normal mouse
T) Laptop touchpad (or other device)


R) Pointer tends to rest on right bottom of screen.

T) A Thinkpad portable keyboard with trackpoint and touchpad used with a desktop box or actual Thinkpads.

[malspa]

Mark Shuttleworth is wants us to collect research data about people's mouse usage.

The purpose of his poll is to gather data about where on the screen the mouse pointer rests when it is not doing anything productive on the screen (not clicking buttons, dragging scrollbars, etc).


I guess this might be a stupid question, but why is this important to anyone?

And I guess the next stupid question is, what possible use could there be for the research data collected from this poll?

[blur xc]

I guess this might be a stupid question, but why is this important to anyone?

And I guess the next stupid question is, what possible use could there be for the research data collected from this poll?


Umm... gui design? Reduce the amount of miles your pointer travels across the screen in a day, maybe??

BM

[madhi19]

Maybe we could come up with a script to record the cursor position at all time and distribute it to the Ubuntu community. Because let face it nobody really knows.

[malspa]

Umm... gui design? Reduce the amount of miles your pointer travels across the screen in a day, maybe??

BM

Hm. Maybe.

I guess I never think about where the cursor comes to rest. I guess I just leave it wherever it last was, so I'll play along and vote "Normal mouse. None of these."


What this poll really tries to answer is:
Does there exist a general pattern?
Or does there exist several patterns?
Or is there no pattern at all?

[blur xc]

You could ask people to use a mouse tracking program like this (http://dottech.org/freewaresr/13865) and have them send in the images it produces. That way the data is somewhat less subjective.

Just for fun-

Don't know what it means in the end though. Spends most of its time in the middle while I click and scroll, but it seems that when I park it I drag it to the bottom right of the screen.

16.7 minutes, btw...

BM

[juancarlospaco]

I have many pointers the poll dont aply...
:s

[malspa]

The more I think about it...

Much of the time, the cursor simply comes to rest near where I last clicked on something. Or else it comes to rest near where I might be likely to use it next, which is an almost subconscious decisions and differs depending on what I happen to do be doing on the computer.

Other times, I just move it somewhere out of the way. When I began this reply, I moved the cursor up towards the upper left of the screen, just to get it out of the way of the text area of this reply page. It could easily have been the lower right or just about anywhere else.

When I'm browsing around and using Firefox tabs, the cursor seems to quite often land up near the tabs or over near the scroll bar.

[koleoptero]

All over the place.

[TetsuoD]

It rests in the Home folder.

[descendent87]

Ends up wherever I stop using it (for example I scrolled to the bottom of this page and the mouse is just lingering in the middle of the window)

[Uncle Spellbinder]

I just push it all the way off screen so as not to be visible until needed. Left, right, top, bottom...doesn't matter.

[Marvin666]

I use a mix of mouse and touchpad, but I use the touch pad most of the time. It's about a 2:1 mix of random to centered. If I leave the computer for more than 5 minutes, it bring up the log in prompt, and recenters the mouse. I do have a habit of "loosing" my cursor from time to time. I have the size turned way down, and it often comes to rest in weird spots.

[oldsoundguy]

I can't really say, since I usually let it stay wherever I happen to stop it, which is in completely random spots most of the time.

+1 .. so your poll does not provide for that!

I also use a trackball(marble) and no proviso for that either!

[Chronon]

I voted (normal mouse) "none of these" because I don't intentionally put the mouse anywhere in particular most of the time. However, if I were trying to put it "out of the way" I would probably put it to the right of the screen.

[dragos240]

Random for me. It's wherever it was last.

[forrestcupp]

I'm usually always moving the mouse pointer along with whatever words I'm reading on the screen. If I'm actually letting it rest, I intentionally put it wherever it is out of the way of what I'm looking at. That is never one specific part of the screen, but I probably tend to go right more since I'm right handed.

[DubyBreaks]

For the most part, to the right edge of the screen if I am browsing the web to avoid being in the way of any reading I may be doing at the time. I found that if I am in other programs it tends to set wherever I have last clicked.

[wojox]

Right side. You know where the Window control buttons are.

Maybe Mr. Shuttleworth should have taken this poll before he let his design team monkey around with the controls and send the community into an uproar. After all that's what this is about, correct? :D

[qalimas]

OSX Snow Leopard
Magic Mouse
1080p on 40"

If any of the top matters; I figured safer than sorry.

To note, when the mouse is inactive, it auto-hides it, so out of the way is never a problem, it stays near the last thing I did - which is convenient.

See attached.

[malspa]

Right side. You know where the Window control buttons are.

Maybe Mr. Shuttleworth should have taken this poll before he let his design team monkey around with the controls and send the community into an uproar. After all that's what this is about, correct? :D



LOL!

Wow, is that really what this is all about? Back to that silly non-issue.

[wojox]

LOL!

Wow, is that really what this is all about? Back to that silly non-issue.

I got a feeling. ;)

[new_tolinux]

It rests where I last used it. At the moment that's near the quick-reply-button of qalimas message.
It will stay there until it's either on top of something I want to see, or until I use it again.
For 99,9% of the time I use a trackball.
There still is a mouse attached to the computer, but I rarely use it. That one rests under my screen.

[markp1989]

mine just rests where ever i last clicked, i dont really have a system for where it goes.

[markp1989]

Maybe we could come up with a script to record the cursor position at all time and distribute it to the Ubuntu community. Because let face it nobody really knows.


while true; do
xdotool getmouselocation >> mouselocation
sleep 1
done

you would need to know the screen resolution for it to be meaning full, but still you get the idea :)

[audiomick]

Now that you ask, I notice that I push the mouse away to the right to get it out of the way of text that I am reading. Since nearly everything I do on the computer is to do with text (i.e. no games except free cell ), I probably do that all the time.

A pity that one cannot choose two options in the poll. I could have supplied a result for the desktop and for the laptop...

[aklo]

Mine is at right hand side. I'm a right handed and the mouse is usually at the right hand side of the monitor like 90% of the time.

Voted.

[cammin]

It's either in the middle of the active window, or out of the way of what I'm looking at in the active window. Pretty much where I left it when I quit using it.

[RandomJoe]

"None of the above", I also leave the pointer where it was last used. This may in part be because the very first thing I switch on for any fresh install of Linux is "Focus Follows Mouse", so kind of pointless to scoot the pointer off somewhere else.

I'm also not fond of mice - I prefer trackballs, but do like the larger / better touchpads like the one on my MBP.

Someone asked what this could be used for, and I remembered a customer's (WinXP) computer that just about drove me mad one time. They had enabled a setting that would jump the mouse pointer to the location of the default/active button/menu for any new window that opened up. And the program that I was working with opened a bunch! Talk about screwing with my muscle memory. I had never consciously noticed it before, but I would make a selection and start moving the mouse to where I needed the pointer to be but of course when the new window opened it jumped (usually) past that to a button I didn't want.

I *definitely* would disable something like that! :o

[MichealH]

I always jerk my mouse to the side when not in use.

[swoll1980]

Mine tends to rest on the last active window, which is usually in the center.

[Yes]

I push it to the right, always. It drives me crazy if I'm reading or watching something and there's a cursor in the middle of it.

[Gallahhad]

You needed to have multi selection. I own both a "normal mouse" and a touchpad.

In either event, the moust pointer ends up where ever it was when I decided to start using the keyboard. So for me its pretty random. If it's in my way I move it out of my way, and then continue working. In some cases I'll just reach up and bump the mouse, or reach down and slide the touchpad, once the pointer is not in a distracting location i take off working again.

[alberthrocks]

I'm surprised no one has used this fun little tool:
http://iographica.com/

Download it, and in a terminal run this:
cd FOLDER (depends on where you saved it)
java -jar IOGraph.jar

If you wish, you can add a screenshot of your desktop for reference.
Just click the options button (tiny little tool icon, in the middle of the button set, which is located on the bottom right), then click Use Desktop as Background. It will freeze a bit to do a screenshot, but then will finish. Click the options button again to return.

Then click the big circle to start the mouse tracking.
Minimize it now. It will begin tracking mouse movement.
Keep it running for a while (3-8 hours).
Then open that window back up, and move your mouse to the center of that image, and click the pause button. Then., click the save button at the top of that button set (which is located at the bottom right corner). Save the image, and upload it. :)

The bigger a circle, the longer the pointer has stayed in that position.

Now THAT's the "data" Mark might be interested in. ;)

Attached is my mouse tracking. It seems that my mouse is always at the right.

Albert

[Phrea]

On this box [I voted using another box] I tend to leave the mouse cursor where it was used last, so completely random.

On the other box, I tend to watch a lot of video, and I don't always use fullscreen, so to get the mouse out of the way, I push it to the right side of the screen.

[Phrea]

I'm surprised no one has used this fun little tool:
http://iographica.com/

Download it, and in a terminal run this:
cd FOLDER (depends on where you saved it)
java -jar IOGraph.jar

If you wish, you can add a screenshot of your desktop for reference.
Just click the options button (tiny little tool icon, in the middle of the button set, which is located on the bottom right), then click Use Desktop as Background. It will freeze a bit to do a screenshot, but then will finish. Click the options button again to return.

Then click the big circle to start the mouse tracking.
Minimize it now. It will begin tracking mouse movement.
Keep it running for a while (3-8 hours).
Then open that window back up, and move your mouse to the center of that image, and click the pause button. Then., click the save button at the top of that button set (which is located at the bottom right corner). Save the image, and upload it. :)

The bigger a circle, the longer the pointer has stayed in that position.

Now THAT's the "data" Mark might be interested in. ;)

Attached is my mouse tracking. It seems that my mouse is always at the right.

Albert

I forgot about that, thanks for reminding me. This might indeed be really what they are interested in.
Besides that, it's fun and makes pretty patterns !

Albert, how long did you let it run on that screenshot?

[jomiolto]

None of these really applies to me. I tend to "hide" the mouse cursor when I'm not using it, by moving to the bottom of the screen (so that only the few top pixels are visible) -- and away from anything that might pop up a tooltip, of course :)

So, it doesn't really matter whether it is left, right or center, as long as I can hide most of the cursor.

[Phrea]

Running for only 20 minutes or so.

http://imgur.com/kXCfR.png

[Phrea]

few mins later:

http://imgur.com/1eqlp.png

[doorknob60]

Kinda towards the top left, depending what I'm doing. I don't know really, it's just natural up there :P I use a regular mouse, not a touchpad.

[alvevind]

http://iographica.com/

This is a good idea.

[Mustard]

I'm rethinking my vote now. I'm thinking centre of the screen consumes the most time idle time, as I'm usually browsing and wheel scrolling, I tend to stay mid screen, equidistant from the 'active areas' of the browser/GUI.

[Metallion]

I can't really say, since I usually let it stay wherever I happen to stop it, which is in completely random spots most of the time.

this.

[Wee_Guy]

Same as the above, cursor is left where the last button was, unless I'm trying to type something in which case I'll be forced to move it elsewhere so I can see what I'm typing. A really nice feature that I missed from Mac OS was the cursor disappearing when I start typing. I know there are programs like Unclutterer but I only want it to disappear when I start typing, and its such a simple feature it would be better just integrated into the OS.

[Wee_Guy]

Sorry, double post.

[Phrea]

Had a bit of fun with IOGraph in my previous two posts, now for some actual data, this is it running for 1.3 days, the big blob on the right is a nights sleep, the smaller blob on the right is a nap.

http://i.imgur.com/I6P2K.png

Above is the result of a day of leisure and surfing the net.

[alvevind]

Thus far the data suggests that the mouse resting location generally is leaning more to right side than to the left. But it also suggests that there is very large variability. Keep posting :-)

[Nisal]

it goes right side of the window i GUESS :p

[madnessjack]

Thus far the data suggests that the mouse resting location generally is leaning more to right side than to the left. But it also suggests that there is very large variability. Keep posting :-)
I bet that's cos most folks are right handed.

[malspa]

Probably because the scroll bar is on the right side.

[gzarkadas]

I would bet on most being right-handed and the tendency to remove things that obstruct us (such as an inactive mouse pointer when reading) by moving our hands away from our body.

Anyway, actual data is always better than guess and I must admit I really liked (from an aesthetic point of view) the IOgraph posted above :cool:. So, I will try to create mine and if succesful, I'll let you know!

[mocoloco]

On the right, and to counter all the "it's because people are right handed" talk, I'm left handed. Like most left handed people I have no problem using the mouse with my right hand, but I switch between hands maybe every couple of weeks or so to lessen strain (I swap primary buttons when I do). My mouse still tends to end up on the right most of the time since most of what I do is web-based or in editors, thus using the scrollbars a lot.

[gzarkadas]

Ok, I attach my first IOgraph image, 1 hour of worth; I will update it as time accumulates.

[gzarkadas]

An update with 6 hours of work, during a day and some hours more.

The three or for most big spots are due to the laptop staying in hibernation and should be discarded.

One thing to note:

The 4-h version of this image (sorry, did not made a copy) was quite empty at the left. I noticed then that I had open windows mainly at the right part of the screen (a 17'' wide-format one). Then I opened some windows (an editor and a terminal) in the left side of the screen and started working there for the next 2-h. The left part of the image filled-up with spots.

Thus, I would conclude that where you work in the screen, affects the result of where the pointer rests; or to put it differently, it seems that it rests near your current working area and thus is also affected by where you prefer to work on the screen, etc.

Things get complex, ](*,) outs! #-oBetter to :-\" . Cheers!

[Cam42]

Wherever I leave it. Never in the same place twice.

[gzarkadas]

Update: 9h worth IOgraph (attached). It's getting prettier as time accumulates; will eventually create some art with it.

[gzarkadas]

Update: IOGraph after 1.1 day.