Re: [9fans] Mousing is faster than typing but users do not believe it

[Bakul Shah <bakul@bitblocks.com>]

On Fri, 17 Jun 2011 19:59:31 +0300 Harri Haataja <realblades@gmail.com>  wrote:
> On 17 June 2011 19:54, Bakul Shah <bakul@bitblocks.com> wrote:
> > I am all for more intuitive HCI design but frankly, if the small speed
> > difference either way in mousing vs typing saves you enough time to make it
> > worth retraining your brain and fingers, you are spending way too much time
> > in front of the puter and have already shortened your life by more than you
> > will save by any optimal use of mousing/keyboarding!
>
> Some of us have to spend our working hours in front of a computer and
> once the interface stops sucking your attention and causing pain, you
> can concentrate on the data in front of you instead of wasting your
> time thinking about the computer or operating system quirks.

The point is that *all* interfaces "suck" (less than optimal
for some things).  Every computer/OS/UI/editor has quirks
(something that will mess you up if you are not careful).
Regardless of what choice you make you have to deal with them!
What most of us do is to learn about them & internalize how to
deal with the quirks so that we can stop thinking about them
and instead focus on the task at hand.

I am not saying don't experiment or don't switch.  But making
a different choice based on a 12 year old study about which we
know very little except its conclusion (with a binary answer
for something n-dimensional) won't magically fix things.

If you are a newbie, you will likely become a lot more
proficient by learning from a local expert (which means using
what he does) or experimenting with various choice until you
find something that works for you.  If you have been working
with computers for a few years you have already made your
choices (by the above method or by fiat). You have already
adpated your working style to fit the tools you chose (or were
given) and retraining can be painful for most people.