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This is an early unpublished editor's draft; content is incomplete and subject to change.

Pointer focus indicated

foundational

Normative Text

There is a visible pointer indicator.

Except when

  • The pointer is on a video - it can be hidden if there is a pointer mechanism to un-hide the pointer indicator.
  • The pointer controls the direction of view in a virtual or real world environment.

Examples of pointers which do not always show the pointer indicator:

  • A touch-screen interface does not need to have an indicator as the pointer is not on an element before activating it.
  • An eye-tracking interface highlights the element under the gaze of the user, but otherwise does not have a pointer indicator.
  • A game where you use the pointer to move the entire view around a virtual environment.

Methods & best practices:

  • Method: Interactive elements are highlighted when the pointer is on the element. For example, a set of image-links are shown, and the one under the pointer is highlighted with an outline or size-change.
Tests

This section is non-normative.

Procedure

With appropriate user-settings enabled:

  1. Move the pointer (mouse, eye tracker, hand gesture in VR space, …).
  2. Check that there is some form of indication of where the user is pointing to.

Expected results

  • #2 is true.

Tests

This content needs to be written.

Key Terms

pointer

a hardware-agnostic representation of input devices that can target a specific coordinate (or set of coordinates) on a screen, such as a mouse, pen, or touch contact