[MUD-Dev] Usability and interface and who the hell is suppo

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

On Thu, 25 Sep 1997 10:31:24 PST8PDT, "Jon A. Lambert"
<jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com> wrote:

>On 23 Sep 97 at 10:52, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
>> 
>> I think I've already mentioned my terrible dislike of switching between 
>> mouse and keyboard. ;)
>> 
>
>Don't you see that this may be an area in which the list _is_ 
>programmer biased?  I am well aware of the dislike of many list 
>members for mice.  It is my experience that this bias does not extend 
>to the general user population.

I don't have a dislike of mice (well, actually, I do... I prefer
trackballs... but this is a minor distinction). What I have a dislike of
is the context switch from a linguistic interface to a visual interface.
This dislike is actually shared almost universally according to
interface testing performed by the big boys (Apple, Microsoft, IBM,
Adobe, et. al.) and should probably be avoided if at all possible. The
'best' way to handle this is to say

	You can do anything with the mouse.
	You can do anything from the keyboard.
	You can use both at the same time.

The problem is when you have some process which must be done from one or
the other. If I prefer to use the mouse, I hit a context switch when
something must be done from the keyboard. If I prefer to use the
keyboard, I hit a context switch when something must be done with the
mouse. There are certain things which just can't be done with a mouse,
specifically text entry, and for that reason you have a few potential
choices:

	Minimise the requirement for text entry as much as possible.
	Devise some way to enter text with the mouse. (Macs *do* have
such a program available; it's a little keyboard simulator which
actually inherits most of the properties of your keyboard like repeat
rate and delay time. I can't recall whether it's freeware or something
included with the O/S, and I don't know if you can still get it.)
	Just leave it and tell people who complain "gee, that's tough".

There are probably more ways to handle it. Unfortunately I had the day
off today, and it's sort of hot, and I'm out of soda, so I've been
drinking Guinness all day and am currently a bit fried. Actually it's
slightly irresponsible to try and give this any further treatment right
now, so I'll wait for responses before I say something stupid. Well,
something else stupid, potentially. ;)

=+[caliban at darklock.com]=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=[http://www.darklock.com/]+=
"It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more 
doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a 
new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by 
the preservation of the old institution, and merely lukewarm defenders in 
those who would gain by the new one."                      -- Machiavelli
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