From: johnsd2@jec325.its.rpi.edu (Daniel Norman Johnson)
Subject: Re: More Defense of CLI (there, I changed the subject ... )
Reply-To: johnsd2@rpi.edu
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 16:53:17 GMT

In article <TOMSTER.92Oct7113657@wpi.WPI.EDU>, tomster@wpi.WPI.EDU (Thomas Richard Dibble) writes:
|> In article <1992Oct7.142810.13778@gvl.unisys.com> dave@prc.unisys.com (David Lee Matuszek) writes:
[deletia- about experiments showing mousing faster than keyboards]

|>    You are correct in that there are surveys showing that users think
|>    using command keys is faster.  There are also experiments showing that
|>    mousing is faster.
|> 
|> As there are experiments showing keyboarding is faster.  It all depends on
|> the subset of commands you use -- if you use a subset of commands the GUI
|> programmer anticipated you would use, therefore putting them in the top
|> slots of all his programs, you will mouse very quickly and efficiently.
|> But if you have to search for these commands -- say they are at the bottom of
|> the menu list, or at the bottom of a heirarchial menu system -- you will
|> not mouse very efficiently at all.  Alt-<FX> is just as easy to type as
|> Alt-<FN>.  the 'New file' option on the File menu is much easier to hit
|> than the Exit menu item, because the 'new' item is highlighted already when
|> I click on the 'File' menu.  Thus, there is a difference in experimental
|> results, which we must weigh accordingly.

Ok, several points. If you are mousing, NO menu item is hilighted.
The easiest item to hit is the second one, or so I've heard. But the
difference isn't very big for straight-forward menus.

For heirarchial menus, u r right. An excellent reason not to use
them in your interface if you can help it. Annother is that
they make browsing a pain.

As to the difference in experimental results, WHAT experiments?
The only experiments Ive heard of arr the ones Apple did. I can
understand that you dont want to take the word of such a source
as gospell, but we aren't going to take your anonymous experminents
very seriously either.

|> 
|>    In his book on interface design, Tognazzi writes: "We've done $50
|>    million of R&D on the Apple Human Interface.  We've discovered, among
|>    other things, two pertinent facts:  1) Test subjects consistently
|>    report that keyboarding is faster than mousing.  2) The stopwatch
|>    consistently reports that mousing is faster than keyboarding."
|> 
|> In the MacOS?  Of course mousing is faster.

Odd, Id expect to you to say the oposite. After all (a) the Macos
as notoriously bad heirarcial menus, (b) the command-key equivalents
are very short- hold down the command key, push the letter key
and (c) these command key equivalents are standardized in the MacOS.

Why do you think mousing should be faster on the Macintosh?

|>    There may be some argument for preferring keyboarding because it seems
|>    faster.  After all, subjective values are important.  The feeling of
|>    speed is important to some people; that's one of the reasons for the
|>    popularity of sports cars.  However, if you wish to claim that
|>    keyboarding is _actually_ faster than mousing, the ball is in your
|>    court; let's hear about the _experiments_ that show this.
|> 
|> Well, that's what I just asked for, now, wasn't it?

I know. A lot of people have asked for this. It doesn't seem to be
forthcoming. I doubt we'll settle this anytime soon.

|> If anyone kept the articles debating this issue, please start reposting the
|> results.

I didn't.

-- 
			- Dan Johnson
And God said "Jeeze, this is dull"... and it *WAS* dull. Genesis 0:0

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