Harold Fuchs wrote: > If you really want to enhance the UI, implement the facility where > ***every*** possible option is available from the keyboard so that real > typists don't have to keep switching between it and the mouse. As far as I'm concerned, you preach to a converted. I'm a heavy keyboard user also, though I tend to use the mouse more frequently when I'm working with Draw.
But OTOH I know that this is not true for the majority of users. So the best keyboard support won't help us for them (though I agree that we have to improve that). Modern applications have a GUI (mind the *G*!) and many (I would say even most) people see this as an advantage, or better: a possible advantage, as of course a bad GUI can't be called advantegeous. So the GUI is important and IMHO it is obvious that OOo needs improvement also in the graphical part of its UI. BTW: a GUI isn't just a simplification for the unexperienced user, if done right it can also serve power users and make work easier for them. Remembering all the key bindings is hard at least for the functions you use rarely, so having a list of functions to select from is a relief then. Basically all GUIs are such lists, though organized and painted very differently. > There's an > ancient organisation in Japan responsible for inventing and improving the > "algorithms" used on a Japanese abacus (which is different from either a > Chinese one or a Russian one). Years and years ago they discovered that the > most time consuming activity when using an abacus is the *attention* switch > (not the finger switch) required to move from one column of beads to > another. Minimising the number of such moves can drastically improve > performance. Similar thinking applies to the switch from the mouse to the > keyboard and back, although in this case it's the finger switch that takes > the time. That's why WordPerfect was so loved by professional typists - they > could do everything from the keyboard. Sure, professional users and especially those caring for efficiency know why they want good key bindings. And especially for typists that get paid by key strokes it's clear that they don't want to get disctracted from the keyboard. But even in text based applications there is work where using the mouse is appropriate, mainly in the finishing process. The switch between keyboard and mouse is only a problem if it is an interruption, but not if it applies to different working phases with a break between them. But we digress. > Do you use professional "usability labs"? These are organisations that get > people in off the street to try to use a piece of software. Typically the > people don't have any training. They are observed & interviewed to find what > comes easily and what doesn't. The results are used to improve the > software's UI. I have usually found them very useful. Uwe already has answered that. Regards, Mathias -- Mathias Bauer (mba) - Project Lead OpenOffice.org Writer OpenOffice.org Engineering at Sun: http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS Please don't reply to "[email protected]". I use it for the OOo lists and only rarely read other mails sent to it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
