Re: Keyboard usage on some Gnome windows not working

[Eric Larson <elarson novell com>]

Hi,

On Thu, 2005-10-20 at 08:49 -0200, Matthew Thomas wrote:
> On 19 Oct, 2005, at 2:49 PM, Bill Haneman wrote:
> >
> > Matthew said:
> >>
> >> In Windows 2000 and (I think) Windows XP, all access key underlines  
> >> are hidden by default.  
> >> <http://www.microsoft.com/enable/training/windowsxp/  
> >> hideunderlines.aspx> This makes the interface less ugly, and possibly  
> >> also somewhat faster for people who aren't disabled (as it  
> >> discourages them from thinking that finding and typing the access key  
> >> is faster than using Tab or the mouse).
> >
> > I am hoping there are missing <sarcasm> tags around that last comment  
> > :-)
> > ...
> 
> No, there aren't. <http://asktog.com/TOI/toi06KeyboardVMouse1.html>
> 
> I see there is some research showing that the keyboard is faster for  
> common commands  
> <http://ad-astra.ro/research/view_publication.php? 
> publication_id=1508&lang=en>, but that wouldn't include access keys  
> unless you were encountering particular dialogs or alerts very often.


I think this screams for a little personal user testing! I use emacs and
I feel as though never having to switch to the mouse is very helpful.
Yet, I have wondered if I do lose productivity by having to remember so
many commands and not having as many facilities for refactoring. 

So in the interest of usability (and a little fun), I propose trying a
short hiatus on using short cut keys and see what happens. I will report
my findings on my blog (http://ionrock.org). 

One thing to consider is that Tog reported this in 1989! I think it is
safe to say that users would not anywhere nearly as accustomed to typing
as we are today. Yet, with this in mind I will still see how this goes.
Wish me luck and if anyone else wants to do the same please let me know
your experiences (elarson novell com). Maybe we can add an article on
the subject to BetterDesktop.org 

Eric