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Granted, life puts limitations on us as we get older but I don't understand how one can predict behaviors of people who do not fully read what they are clicking

Granted, life puts limitations on us as we get older but I don't understand how one can predict behaviors of people who do not fully read what they are clicking on. See, you've misunderstood the root of the problem. This person knew exactly where he wanted to click, he aimed for those targets, and his physical limitations caused him to miss those targets. User intent is not the problem. The problem here is the penalty for missing: he gets shuttled to an off-site advertisement that doesn't have anything to do the task at hand. If he misses and just goes to Drafts instead of Inbox, that's a much easier mistake for the user to understand and correct; the intended target link is still prominent on the unintended page, it's easy to connect cause with effect ("Stupid shaky hand, oops!"), and it's easy to try again. Unfortunately, in this case, that advertisement's placement makes it a very expensive miss for the user. Before the user even knows what has happened, he's on another site entirely. And that ad is placed between what are arguably the two most important links in the interface: Inbox and Compose. In the example provided the ad link has a decent amount of white space between it and the inbox link. There's even an intended barrier between the two in the form of a horizontal rule, granted one pixel. What more do you want? He probably missed the targets because they're skinny and/or long and require a good deal of "vertical accuracy", which can easily devolve into "vertical inaccuracy". The targets should be given some additional vertical size. This is anecdotal based upon experiences with my own shaky hand, so YMMV.

talmand 14y ago
As I posted in another comment, the problem you describe exists for this person regardless of whether it involves an ad or not. The entire UI for this app is a serious problem with a person of these limitations. I fail to see how going to an ad page is a worse offense than going to Drafts as opposed to Inbox. Either way the person in question has to correct the mistake. Expensive in what way? Money, time, embarrassment? I don't see the difference. The ad is between Compose and Inbox, so what? Are you suggesting that Yahoo somehow benefits from an accidental click on this ad? What's the purpose of them putting it there? Could it be possible they have it there because they consider that you are more likely to see it there and not that you'll accidentally click on it? And again, what's the optimum distance that's acceptable? Fifty pixels? One hundred? I would have to assume that if this is the problem then it is a potential problem for nearly every website and application ever made. The reason this bothers me is because people are saying the burden is on Yahoo to fix this when the problem does not necessarily lay with them, but other factors are in play they have no control over. Some people are even suggesting nefarious reasons for this ad placement to "trick" people into clicking on it. For what benefit? I too sometimes click on something other than what I intended. Most of the time I don't blame the app, I blame myself. There are times that people will employ tricks to get you to do what they want, that's when you complain; this is not a good example of this.
- verisimilidude 14y ago
  I fail to see how going to an ad page is a worse offense than going to Drafts as opposed to Inbox. Either way the person in question has to correct the mistake. Expensive in what way? Money, time, embarrassment? I don't see the difference. At first it's going to be confusion. It's the difference between quickly being able to understand the mistake (because the whole interface is still on the screen, with the pointer maybe in the same position) vs. suddenly being on a completely different site. Keep in mind that this is a missed link, so the user may not immediately know what has been clicked. After the guy has been using Yahoo Mail for a while and the peril of that ad is well understood, it's just going to become really really annoying, getting sent off-site, every time he hits it. And he will hit it. Could it be possible they have it there because they consider that you are more likely to see it there and not that you'll accidentally click on it? Sure. But is that the best choice? That's the question. Like you say, even fully able-bodied people sometimes click the wrong link. It seems like a good idea to take that into consideration when placing what may be the two most trafficked buttons within your interface. I'm not assuming nefarious purposes on Yahoo's part. I can't say what the optimum vertical height of a button should be for a shaky person. Gmail serves my purposes fairly well without making many design compromises.

talmand 14y ago

As I posted in another comment, the problem you describe exists for this person regardless of whether it involves an ad or not. The entire UI for this app is a serious problem with a person of these limitations. I fail to see how going to an ad page is a worse offense than going to Drafts as opposed to Inbox. Either way the person in question has to correct the mistake. Expensive in what way? Money, time, embarrassment? I don't see the difference. The ad is between Compose and Inbox, so what? Are you suggesting that Yahoo somehow benefits from an accidental click on this ad? What's the purpose of them putting it there? Could it be possible they have it there because they consider that you are more likely to see it there and not that you'll accidentally click on it? And again, what's the optimum distance that's acceptable? Fifty pixels? One hundred? I would have to assume that if this is the problem then it is a potential problem for nearly every website and application ever made. The reason this bothers me is because people are saying the burden is on Yahoo to fix this when the problem does not necessarily lay with them, but other factors are in play they have no control over. Some people are even suggesting nefarious reasons for this ad placement to "trick" people into clicking on it. For what benefit? I too sometimes click on something other than what I intended. Most of the time I don't blame the app, I blame myself. There are times that people will employ tricks to get you to do what they want, that's when you complain; this is not a good example of this.

verisimilidude 14y ago
I fail to see how going to an ad page is a worse offense than going to Drafts as opposed to Inbox. Either way the person in question has to correct the mistake. Expensive in what way? Money, time, embarrassment? I don't see the difference. At first it's going to be confusion. It's the difference between quickly being able to understand the mistake (because the whole interface is still on the screen, with the pointer maybe in the same position) vs. suddenly being on a completely different site. Keep in mind that this is a missed link, so the user may not immediately know what has been clicked. After the guy has been using Yahoo Mail for a while and the peril of that ad is well understood, it's just going to become really really annoying, getting sent off-site, every time he hits it. And he will hit it. Could it be possible they have it there because they consider that you are more likely to see it there and not that you'll accidentally click on it? Sure. But is that the best choice? That's the question. Like you say, even fully able-bodied people sometimes click the wrong link. It seems like a good idea to take that into consideration when placing what may be the two most trafficked buttons within your interface. I'm not assuming nefarious purposes on Yahoo's part. I can't say what the optimum vertical height of a button should be for a shaky person. Gmail serves my purposes fairly well without making many design compromises.