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### Topic

#### A way to help make your street more user-friendly for some

Hi! As evidenced by the rise of the resource routes and so forth, it's easy to see some Glitchen are interested in making their home street a place for the benefit of others. As I spend my time on the routes I've noticed a way to be helpful that might not be as obvious as some others.
Although (in my experience as both a mouse and a keyboard player) keyboard commands are quicker, there are times and circumstances for some people that mean the mouse is preferred or necessary. So if you're designing your street with visitors in mind it may be helpful to take a moment to think of the mouse style of play, if it's not something you're used to. Obviously there are plenty of ways to set up a home street but I wanted to share this in case it might be helpful for people who haven't thought about it.
The first big example is animals around the resources. If you don't want to constrain your animals very tightly with the animal stick, try placing them in strategic locations. For example butterflies mostly stay to the top and middle, and aren't going to be quite as annoying near your lower-down gardens as pigs would be. One or two chickens in front of a garden are problematic at times but not so much as pigs, as you can click to grain them and make them fly away, or KFC them out of the way. Resources such as trees or rocks* will have a larger clickable area versus things like garden plots, barnacles, or jellys, so can tolerate the presence of animals more easily.
*edit: MX Ghostie reminded me that rocks get down to nubs with not as much clickable area. If you're a keyboard user one way to get around this is double-clicking your pick instead of the rock.
edit 2: Commenters have also mentioned making sure your signpost is free of obstructions; gnomes, note posts, and gnome speech bubbles can all make clicking signs difficult or impossible.
The other thing I've noticed is note posts. If you're using the keyboard, you have to press enter in order to see the title of the note, and at that point you might as well hit enter to read it too. But if you're using the mouse, it's very quick and easy to mouse over things, which will get you the title of the note very quickly and sometimes without even specifically trying. That means that if you have directions or instructions to give visitors, putting the most important info in the title will be more beneficial.
If giving directions, remember that an ascii left arrow won't show up at the beginning of a note. If giving instructions, try to abbreviate and get the instructions in the title, or clearly say what the instructions are about - that way people who go through your street quickly but mouse over the sign will get the info whereas they might not otherwise gotten the info too late or not at all. (As an example, I recently did something on someone's home street they had asked in a note not to; although I'd looked at the note title prior to my actions I had no idea from the title of the note that the contents were referring to the resources I was using so I hadn't bothered to read the full note.)
I hope this helps some! Thanks to all who use their home streets as a way to think of others - I know for me and plenty of others it really helps enhance the game.

Posted 6 months ago by diaveborn ♥ | Permalink

### Replies

- Great post! (I use keyboard to move, but mouse to interact.)
  Two things to add:
  - I disagree that rocks are as animal-friendly as trees; when you get down to the stub end of a rock, the clickable area is much smaller, and closer to the ground.
  - Putting gnomes (and short note poles, which have a weirdly large clickable area that I've bug reported) too close to your street sign can make the bottom sign (assuming you have all five in use) nigh unclickable.
  Posted 6 months ago by MX Ghostie | Permalink
- Oh, you're completely right about the rocks! When I use the keyboard to mine I mostly double click on my pick, and not the rock, so I'd forgotten about that. Just added an edit to the post to clarify - thanks!
  Posted 6 months ago by diaveborn ♥ | Permalink
- Very helpful divaborn. I mostly use the mouse and agree with all that. (Even if I hit enter to highlight stuff I often then click on it rather than arrowing five across and two down!)
  Posted 6 months ago by Cassandria | Permalink
- Cassandria, don't forget, you can arrow left once to get to the things on the right side of the disambiguation menu. The lines "wrap" so when you are on the left edge, another left arrow takes you to the right edge, and when you are at the top, an up arrow takes you to the bottom row.
  Posted 6 months ago by Zany Serendipity | Permalink
- I'd also add that gnomes too close to the street signs also block off the names. Usually it's the top two if the gnome has a short sentence, but the more he says, the bigger the speech bubble and the more signs get blocked off. This gets annoying when you're on a route and you're ready to move on to the next one, because you've been there long enough that passing the gnome activates his speech.
  Posted 6 months ago by Maddie_Rocca | Permalink
- Thanks for the tips! I've adjusted the position of my piggy herd so they don't crowd the crop garden anymore.
  Is there a mouse user who would like to come to my street to do an "accessibility assessment"? :D
  (actually, I'd appreciate suggestions from keyboard users as well... I have a lot of stuff crammed into my street, but I'm trying to organize it in a way that is not irritating for my visitors)
  Posted 6 months ago by Miss Portinari | Permalink
- Thank you diaveborn, this is very helpful! I'm going to move my pesky gnomes away from the street sign now, and check out the rest of the layout.
  Personally, I find pigs and chickens that are tightly crowded by posts, very difficult to pet etc., so I mostly ignore them. (seems animals don't count anyway tho)
  Posted 6 months ago by Phoebe Springback | Permalink
- There are 2 areas on a fully upgraded street where you can put animals without them interfering with harvesting other resources.
  ● The area immediately to the right of your house -- there is enough space between the house and the first resource to put animals on smaller than normal radius
  ● the sloping area to the left of your signpost where you cannot place any resources -- again, enough space to put animals in a smaller than normal radius
  Aside from those two areas you can also place animal sticks in front of Firefly Hives as that resource does not need to be clicked.
  Posted 6 months ago by Mal'akh | Permalink
- A bit off-topic-ish, but you can also use A and D to walk around instead of the arrow keys. I generally only uses A and D while clicking/spamming enter, actually.
  Posted 6 months ago by Elly | Permalink
- I have my front yard/street set up for other people to use. These are a few things that I do and things that I wish a few others would follow if they like vistors on their street.
  * If you're going to have a crop garden, have the pigs somewhat close to the garden. Having the pigs on the opposite side of your home street makes it less likely they will be fed veggies to fill up the garden.
  *Be careful with leaving too many notes and directions on what NOT to do on your street. Try to take out any negatives in your sentences that you leave on notes. You'll get a lot more positive responses from people.
  Posted 6 months ago by Eye Wonder | Permalink
- I think stuff that's a bit off-topic is really appropriate here actually - all of these suggestions have been awesome! :D
  Posted 6 months ago by diaveborn ♥ | Permalink
- Another point - if you are using the mouse make sure to not drag the mouse over the piggies when they're walking past the gardens/resources, otherwise they will stop and look at you adoringly and stay there in the way for a little bit :)
  Posted 5 months ago by diaveborn ♥ | Permalink
- Also, remember that not everyone has fast systems with fast connections.
  Please keep animals away from being visible if you are standing at the signpost AND where the magic rock sits.
  If ppl use signs they'll load on your sign, if people get to you street from your profile or keys they'll load at your Magic Rock.
  Loading animals and the street simultaneously seems to be too much for some set-ups.
  Posted 5 months ago by M<3tra, obviously | Permalink
- Also: Please place butlers in reasonable posts(at the street sign/house). I certainly would not be as tempted to leave a present if I have to run across your whole street to find the butler.
  Posted 5 months ago by KitkatCat | Permalink