The history of the mouse wheel (via Coding Horror) is quite revealing concerning the opportunistic nature of the design process and shatters our illusions about the analysis>synthesis, theory>practice sequence.
The design and function of the mouse wheel (atfirst zooming, then scrolling), altered during the course of the project by observing users and forging Latourian coalitions with Microsoft divisions and Office Project teams.
Experimenting with new hardware features (wheel as a button) led to new software features (panning):
Around this time, we also made the wheel a button — you could press it as well as roll it. I remember David Jones, an Excel program manager, bringing in a TV remote which had a wheel button and we saw that it worked pretty well. Adding this allowed panning — while keeping the button pressed and moving the mouse, the document scrolls in the direction that you move the mouse. The further you move the mouse, the faster it scrolls. And then if you just click the wheel (as a button), you go into “reader mode” where you can have the document continuously scroll (where the speed is adjusted by how far you move the mouse from the point of button-down). This is cool functionality, and remains useful today, although in retrospect I don’t remember why we thought this was important enough to add in the middle of the project. Eric Michelman
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