On 28 Jun 2009 at 9:21, dhbailey wrote: > 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. > > > > (BTW, those who think there's no keyboard equivalent of RIGHT-CLICK > > on Windows are wrong -- there's an entire key devoted to it on any > > standard Windows keyboard, including laptops) > > Of course, Apple and Microsoft had a vested interest in the > research proving that mousing was faster.
They do? How, exactly? That is one of the unspoken assumptions behind much of the criticism of the reported results, yet nobody that I've ever seen has ever bothered to unpack that and explain exactly why Apple and Microsoft would benefit from misrepresenting research results. Sure, in the early days of the Mac (in the 80s), when Apple was promoting the first mainstream GUI, there was resistance and a need to promote the utility of the mouse. But that's long in the past, and Microsoft has always maintained full keyboard compatibility (e.g., all menus are keyboard accessible and always have been -- it's built into MS's development tools and always has been). If they were so all-fired devoted to mousing, why would they offer that? > Has any truly independent research verified their results? I can't cite chapter and verse, but I believe so. > For many users who get comfortable with the mouse as a way > of avoiding memorizing all sorts of keyboard shortcuts, it > truly is faster. But for those who have memorized keyboard > shortcuts, for many applications (I would put Finale when > used in Speedy Entry without a midi keyboard attached into > this category) every time the hands have to leave the > keyboard to move the mouse, time is lost. So you say. The research says the opposite. Until you can demonstrate that the research is flawed and produces unreliable results, I'm going to believe those who've actually taken the time to design mechanisms for testing the proposition, rather than going with the gut feelings of individual users. -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
