NYTimes.com stole my double-click, and I think I like it
I am an avid reader of NYTimes.com. I check the homepage periodically throughout the day and always read the magazine.
When I read long articles online I find myself aimlessly double-clicking on the sentence I'm reading or on a particular thought to read again. This is pretty harmless in most situations but today I was in for a surprise.
As I was reading through an article about JetBlue's response to the catastrophe that unfolded over the last week at JFK airport in New York. I was immediately struck by the CEO's proposal to pay customers for their wasted time. I double-clicked the world penalties and was shocked to see a pop-up window.
NYTimes.com responded to my aimless double-click as if I had asked a question. It took me a minute to realize what had happened. There is no apparent setting to turn this on or off. Historically they have offered links for common topics, like President Bush, but this new feature makes literally every word into a link.
On the one hand I like that I can quickly look up an unknown word, or find out more detail about a concept. As a Mac user I've been used to having a dictionary at my fingertips for years now. This new feature by the NYTimes brings this convenience to everyone.
The problem is that they accomplish this by hijacking a common interface tool without warning. I'm hardly the only person who aimlessly clicks or highlights while reading.
I applaud the New York Times for working to add this resource to their content, I just hope they come up with a more effective interface to it.
Here are a few proposals:
- Add an "Instant Lookup" on/off switch to the E-mail, Print, etc. toolbar. Make sure to include a "what is this" box to let people know what it offers them. Also allow the reader to set a default setting based on this selection.
- Add an "Instant Lookup" magnifying glass that the user can click to turn it on and then click their cursor to a word. You could even hijack the cursor icon when they click the magnifying glass so they know that their second click will look up information on the word or phrase.
- Add an icon after a few seconds of hover on a word that the reader can click to define it. This is more passive but at least gives some visual feedback.
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Who is this guy?
I don't like that, not one bit. Like you, I double click all over the place when I'm reading online. Now, it appears you are saying that I'll have yet one more unasked for "pop-up" to fuss with while I'm reading the NYTimes.
No Thank You, I say. If I want to know more, I'll look it up myself. Or as you suggested, at least give the reader an option to turn the darned thing off!
You're totally right Julie. The more I "use" this feature inadvertently the more annoyed I become.
If they are going to keep this around they should make it more obvious what's going on and come up with a way to turn it off.
The annoyance is high, still, i like the intent. Such buried little functionality is great for the hard-core users, making an experience better and better over time. Unfortunately, the double-click functionality doesn't reveal itself in the most compelling way. There's no hover state, no invitational interaction design to let the user ask, "hey, what's that?"
I too am afflicted with click-like-crazy syndrome; in fact, I just stumbled upon your post and posted about this same thing yesterday.
Launching the dictionary search on double-click may be the most annoying thing I have experienced recently on a website, made even worse by the fact that New York Times content is so valuable to so many people.
If they had at least made it so that when you double clicked in a line something at least marginally sensible was opened, it might be a different story.
The annoyance is high and the intent is to make money! Bring back free clicking!
This annoyed me so much that I started reading NY Times less and less... but no more!
I figured out how to disable it... in firefox at least:
http://www.edwardjames.org/2007/05/04/howto-disable-nytimescom-double-click-foolishness/