On Mon, 25 Nov 2002, MJ Ray wrote:
Andrew Savory lists@andrewsavory.com wrote:
Or how about "Microsoft and Apple plough millions into usability studies, perhaps they have a point"
They are not immune from making goofs (and many books have been written about their goofs) and just adopting their decisions ignores our own past work.
Oh, ok -- I wasn't aware that there had been extensive usability tests on the keybindings you mentioned?
or "if 95% of the population expect CTRL-A to select all, perhaps we should be consistent",
That is not true, though.
Ok, whatever current percentage use Windows or MacOS and are aware of keyboard shortcuts. It's still very safe to assume "the majority".
Having to reconfigure it everywhere is a real pain and GTK seems not to use the X Resource Database, so it's not even consistent on the one display until you edit everywhere that you run programs. Having the new default cause injury to users used to the old default *of the same application* is also very bad.
For sure it's a pain, and switching bindings in a program is bad. But does that mean we must stick with the errors of yesterday? I don't think so. It would not be difficult to imagine a new version of a program warning the user: "Keyboard shortcuts have changed: <show changes> <use old shortcuts> <use new shortcuts>". Not doing that is the bug, not changing shortcuts to follow "the norm".
Much more RSI is caused by relocating your hands continuously, IIRC. We type combinations in most sentences. Where do you get the idea that control-A runs the risk of RSI more than relocating twice?
Depends on where your hands are when at rest (which I guess depends on whether you've had 'formal' keyboard training or not), and just how often you need "start of line". It's all pretty circumstantial. What may be best for you in emailing/coding won't be best for someone typing essays. What's best for someone typing essays won't be best for someone surfing, etc. All we can hope for is consistency (across platforms) and configurability (for deviations from "the norm").
There is no usability study evidence to support injuring users. There is hardly any to support ^A as select all, even on Windows. Unless, of course, you know otherwise?
Nope, but then I've yet to see any evidence in favour of ^U, ^K, ^Y, ^T, ^A, ^E, either. All I have is the casual observation that to most people I've spoken to, a key labelled "Home" makes MUCH more sense than ^whatever. *That* is the common sense bit.
Andrew.