map navigation
Widget gallery Panning
Drag hand
Dragging mouse pointer: intuitive tool to move map view.
The NG MapMachine makes extensive use of the scripting language JavaScript to change the mouse pointer's behaviour beyond simply clicking. Once users have selected the panning tool, the centre of the map view changes by simply clicking on the map. Holding down the mouse button and dragging the mouse pointer across the map, the current map moves along. Releasing the mouse button refreshes the map, thus changing the centre of the map view.
The altered behaviour of the mouse pointer is not communicated to the user. This could be achieved by changing the mouse pointer icon to a hand which is a popular metaphor for panning. Furthermore, users have to guess whether they have dragged the mouse pointer far enough to reveal the appropriate map view, because the map is only updated after the mouse button has been released.