Missing Features

When you click on a folder in Vista the folder becomes surronded by a nice looking bounding box:

This isn’t just a nice visual effect, it’s a usability cue. The bound box is an outline of a folder’s bounded region where you can click to act on that folder.

Double click in the bounding area and you open the folder. Click and drag and you move the folder. The metaphor is effective because the visual bound box is the same as the actionable region around the box.

Well, as it turns out that isn’t completely true.

A Vista user when asked is likely to admit to many instances of attempting to drag a folder on the desktop when in reality the folder isn’t grabbed, the folder is missed.

Why does this happen?

The bound box metaphor is not completely applied. The bottom level of the visual bounding box is below the name of the folder, equally wide as the top (a square). But the lower area of the actionable region is only as wide as the name of the folder.

So in the diagram below, if you click in the red areas you will be clicking on the desktop, not the folder:

A subtle mistake to be sure, but a daily headache for the user.

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