From: mike@isgtec.com (Mike Sellers)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x,comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: GUIs Considered Harmful
Date: 7 Sep 92 15:03:27 GMT
Organization: ISG Technologies Inc., Mississauga Ontario

mouse@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (der Mouse) writes:
> neeri@iis.ethz.ch (Matthias Neeracher) writes:
> > From Bruce Tognazzini, _Tog on Interface_:
> >   We've done a cool $50 million of R&D on the Apple Human Interface.
> >   We discovered, among other things, two pertinent facts:
> >   - Test subjects consistently report that keyboarding is faster than
> >      mousing. 
> >   - The stopwatch consistently proves that mousing is faster than
> >      keyboarding.
> 
> >   People new to the mouse find the process of reaching for it every
> >   time they want to do anything other than type to be incredibly
> >   time-wasting.
> Not just people new to the mouse.  I've used machines with mice for at
> *least* five years.  And I *still* find having to take a hand off the
> keybaord and reach for the mouse every fifteen seconds very (not
> "incredibly"; it's all too credible by now) time-wasting.

You're both just confirming what Apple apparently found: people *report* 
that they feel that using the mouse & keyboard is slower/more wasteful
than just using the keyboard alone.  This kind of self-report is an 
important part of UI design.  On the other hand, the folks at Apple
apparently also found that the mouse and keyboard was actually *faster*
than the keyboard alone, people's intuition notwithstanding.  Until you've
done your own empirical study your personal experience does not outweigh
or contradict Apple's findings.

> [...]
> >   It takes two seconds to decide upon which special-function key to
> >   press.
> 
> Oh, the subjects were just basically incompetent in general.  If it
> takes as long as *one* second to decide which key to press, I consider
> myself "idling".  I type well over 100wpm when I don't have to stop and
> decide what I want to type next.  If I know what I want to do, and what
> key I need to press to do it, it will eat up perhaps .05 second.

Unless you've had yourself independently timed, I doubt strongly whether
_any_ of these numbers are correct -- I think a reaction time of 0.05 second
may be impossible given the rate of neural impulses from your eye, through
your brain, down your spine, and out to your hands.  People almost always 
think they type, press, and generally react *much* faster than they actually 
do.

On the other hand, if you really do type "well over" 100wpm then you are
at the far end of the typing-speed spectrum.  Given this, your needs and
abilities do not conform to the needs and abilities of the vast majority 
of computer users; you cannot judge them by looking at yourself.

> When I find a GUI in which I can make a menu selection in .1 second
> with the mouse, I'll stop griping about how much it slows me down.  I'm
> not exactly holding my breath :-)

Nor am I.  I feel confident in saying that you cannot type in the 
abbreviated version of your favorite command in 0.1 second either.  
An interface (GUI, CLI, or whatever) would have to have direct 
cortex-connect to achieve such speeds.  

> 					der Mouse
> 
> 			    mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu

--
              Mike Sellers      User Interface Team Leader
           mike@isgtec.com      ISG Technologies, Toronto, Canada
              "Actum ne agas" -- Do not do what has been done.
                         Furare tantum ab Optimis
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x