Great App. Usability needs some work. – Remote : Mouse/Keyboard/Presentation/Trackpad Free for PC/Mac Review

I would give this app 5 stars based on its rich feature set, but I have to knock off a star because its user interface needs to be improved. The problem is that with too many if its features crammed on any one of its three main ‘pages’, it is much to easy to accidentally hit the wrong button. For example, on it’s simplest page, the four main functions of a keyboard mouse are displayed in the top half: touchpad, left click button, right click button, and scroll bar. In the bottom half of this page, there are multiple rows of buttons for functions such as copy, paste, cut, open, save, print, etc. The problem is that unlike a physical mouse, there are few tactile clues as to where your fingers are when using the app. So unless your eyes are focused directly on your Ipad when using the mouse, it’s too easy to trigger one of the function buttons accidentally. Consequently, I find myself constantly undoing and closing dialogue boxes I never intended to open. As currently implemented, this app is analogous to a real physical mouse that when using it requires me to focus my eyes on the mouse, rather than on the computer screen that I’m trying to control with the mouse. These shortcomings could be partially and easily fixed by the developers if they analyzed how an actual person uses any of the app’s supported features, including how they hold the iPad in their hands when using this app. In that regard, I suggest moving the “mouse” features to the lower half of the page, and all the function buttons to the upper half. This emulates the position of these features on an actual laptop and would reduce the chances of pressing a “wrong button” unintentionally during any finger swipe action. The ability to hide features would also be a big plus. In this case as in many, Less is often better than More.
Review by Cal in Tacoma on Remote : Mouse/Keyboard/Presentation/Trackpad Free for PC/Mac.