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Balancing Use Between the Keyboard and Mouse?

Posted by Cliff on from the *gasp*-someone-used-'bling'-in-a-sentence dept.

initialE wonders: "A friend of mine, working for a bank, mentioned to me that she had just undergone training for the migration of applications from their legacy systems (think DOS-based interface, AS400 powered) to a snazzy new web application. Whereas the younger users were impressed by the bling it provided, the older users were less happy, and the reason provided was that the application lacked shortcut keys to doing their most common tasks. The newer staff were mighty pleased not to have to learn all those arcane commands, of course. This led me to consider a few things. I administer Windows-based systems, and more and more I am choosing to use whatever key-based interface is available - I don't even use the file explorer anymore, preferring to type 'WindowsKey+R', and typing in the file path (Windows helps with auto-complete). It's better for me to keep my hands on the keyboard and not touch the mouse. It's certainly not because my mouse is bad, I just don't want to release the focus on the keyboard. And it works - I get things done a lot faster than anyone else in my department. Have we placed too much emphasis on making GUI-based applications, and left behind what was a perfectly good way of doing things?"

2 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. GUI-CLI by daeley · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have to agree that we have placed too much emphasis on the GUI where a nice key command would suffice. On OS X, I can't survive without Quicksilver, which has been referred to as a GUI CLI, combining the best of both. It can also function as a sort of "glue app," interfacing between Terminal programs and GUI apps.

    --
    I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
  2. Web developer stupidity by Bogtha · · Score: 5, Informative

    Okay, if the users wanted keyboard shortcuts, why didn't the web developers include them? It's not as if HTML doesn't have support for this.

    A properly constructed GUI application should be just as usable with the keyboard as older applications. Web applications throw up a couple of minor hurdles, but no real showstoppers. The question seems pointless because you can have the best of both worlds easily.

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    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha