The ‘hardware control’-’pixel world’ mapping (2)
[taken from http://www.jegsworks.com/Lessons/lesson3/lesson3-3.htm]
- Mouse Advantage: Moves cursor around the screen faster than using keystrokes. Disadvantage: Requires moving hand from keyboard to mouse and back. Repeated motion can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome.
- Trackball Advantage: Does not need as much desk space as a mouse. Is not as tiring since less motion is needed. Disadvantage: Requires fine control of the ball with just one finger or thumb. Repeated motions of the same muscles is tiring and can cause carpal tunnel syndrome.
- Glidepad Advantage: Does not need as much desk space as a mouse. Can readily be built into the keyboard. Has finer resolution. That is, to achieve the same cursor movement onscreen takes less movement of the finger on the glidepad than it does mouse movement. Can use either buttons or taps of the pad for clicking. Disadvantage: The hand tires faster than with a mouse since there is no support. Some people don't find the motion as natural as a mouse.
- Pen Advantage: Can use handwriting instead of typing. Can use gestures instead of typing commands small size. Disadvantage: Must train device to recognize handwriting. Must learn gestures or train device to recognize the ones you create. Can lose the pen which is not usually attached to the device.
- Touchscreen Advantage: It's natural to do - reach out and touch something. Disadvantage: It's tiring if many choices must be made. It takes a lot of screen space for each choice since fingers are bigger than cursors.
- Graphic tablet Advantage: Don't have to redraw graphics already created. Disadvantage: Expensive.