A Web Interface Proposal

I would like to propose an interface rule for the web: Under no circumstances shall the mouseover event modify the layout of a web page. Period.

Moving the mouse about is a natural, indeed, an essential activity on a mouse-based GUI. The idiom is move around, click to act.

But on the web, this rule is regularly flaunted. We have our mouse over action, and we can do anything with it. When it comes to layout, this is a Bad Thing.

I'm particularly thinking of insidious dropdown navigation tools. Example: Inc. Magazine. Dropdown navs are particularly horrible because of how common it is to be at the top of a web page, wanting to move to the content area, but needing to pass through the navigation zone. So you trigger the nav, and content appears under your mouse. If you want to click a link under the resultant menu, you must zoom around, then return to do complete the task.

This is just awful.

I feel pretty silly writing this post, because the horrors of the design seem so manifest to me. And yet mouseovers flourish. I think it's time we as an industry band together, and consign layout-altering hovers to the dark, tawdry place where blink tags and scrolling marquees now live.

One notes it is still fair game to change cosmetic attributes on hover. But layout changes are for clicks.