On Jun 26, 2009, at 9:16 PM, David W. Fenton wrote:
On 26 Jun 2009 at 21:00, Kim Patrick Clow wrote:
I have several friends that are graphic designers, and I'm in awe of
watching them work in Photoshop or Illustrator without having to
use the
mouse at all. When I asked about it, they told me their
productivity would
shrink by 3/4 if they didn't have the keyboard shortcuts.
And yet, the actual research on this subject completely contradicts
that user perception. That is, Apple and Microsoft's usability labs
have run the tests many times and mousing is faster than keyboarding.
It's counterintuitive to me, but them's the facts.
Yeah, but mousing is not faster when you start going into menus three
layers deep, and have to aim and click a little button. A single, or
even two or three, keystrokes is faster by far. Plus, the more you
use a certain keystroke, the faster you get at it. Mousing speed
reaches its upper limit quickly.
It's made up for, though, by the mouse's ability to pick out an item
among hundreds on a screen, and click-and-hold or click-and-drag,
plus all other goodies a mouse GUI brings. THAT stuff is very slow
with keystrokes, which may have skewed the results.
Let's say that sometimes a mouse is faster, and sometimes the
keystroke is faster. Maybe a mouse is faster ON AVERAGE, but I bet an
experienced user using their own choices can beat the control groups
handily.
Christopher
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