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User-centric GUI Design Explained to All
TuringTest writes "The webzine User Instinct carries an article on Usable GUI Design showing that good user interfaces are not beyond the means of free and open software development: 'This article presents five key points of user interface design [...] that any software developer should be able to use.' In related news, The Economist writes against software complexity in an interview to MIT's John Maeda, PhD in interface design. See also OpenUsability, a project for testing user interfaces in a bazaar-like model. The specifics of UI design in Open Source projects has been previously debated on Slashdot."
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You seem to be confused about how Fitts' Law is applied. It doesn't have anything to do with keyboard commands versus mouse commands. It's a way of comparing the speed and accuracy of commands issues by a two dimensional input device like the mouse. It doesn't have anything to do with the time required to switch between different types of input devices like the mouse and keyboard, which is a different issue entirely.
Your argument that Fitts' Law has become unreasonably important doesn't make sense. It has nothing to do with whether or not there are visual shortcuts for keyboard accelerators.
You don't say how mouse gestures will "dramatically change the effects of Fitt's (sic) law". You're putting the cart before the donkey. Fitts' law predicts the dramatic and positive effect of speed and reliability of mouse gestures. It sounds like you're trying to say the opposite. What do you mean?
Your statement that "The more you conform to established metaphores, the more easily you can make your product usable." is pure bullshit, but of course it's true that "Creating new metaphores is difficult, and getting them accepted is even more difficult."
The Sims user interface incorporates pie menus (which Fitts' Law correctly predicts are faster and more efficient than linear menus), but it certainly doesn't confirm to established metaphores. Yet it's the top selling game of all time, and the interface has been reviewed by professional designers as "superb". So yes, it's quite possible to successfully apply Fitts' Law to user interface design, to implement an innovative, easily usable product, without confirming to established metaphores.
In the field of user interface design, you should NEVER make a statement like "At no point should a person be presented with more than 9 items in a selection when one has to be chosen." That's "cargo cult design methodology" when you mindlessly repeat rules of thumb without understanting them, trying to imitate the successes of other systems by apeing their surface features, but not understanding their underlying design. User interface design is all about understanding trade-offs and context, not rigidly applying pedantic design rules you read somewhere without understanding them or pausing to consider the actual application.
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com