[IxDA Discuss] keyboard shortcuts + contextual menus

[Jim Drew]

>From: Jeff Howard <id at howardesign.com>
>
>Bruce Tognazzini argued in Tog on Interface that keyboard
>"shortcuts" aren't actually a faster means of executing commands
>than menuing, they just seem faster to the user. His argument is
>reprinted here:
>
>http://www.asktog.com/TOI/toi06KeyboardVMouse1.html
>
>It's a nearly 20-year old position that seems counterintuitive

I recall some of that sort of info from my UI coursework back in 1989 or so, too.

Just thinking about it now, and mentally stepping back and observing how I work, I see a few things not mentioned in the TOG article, which makes me wonder about the tetsing they did at the time and the applicability of the results today.  (Too often, user testing seems to be done with novice users, or users with no product experience.  Less variables in the mix, but less applicability to "perpetual intermediates" and "power users".)

* The "two-second acquisition of the mouse" bit.  In a time where the mouse was a newfangled contraption, something that people maybe had to remember how to use and where it was, I can see an acquisition time like that.  Today, though, I have a black mouse with a glowing red spot on it, providing high contrast with my light gray desk, and the mouse is always in my peripheral vision when I'm at the keyboard.  Since I always know what it is and where it is -- and since I use it abundantly -- getting to it and using it takes a fraction of a second and negligible thought.

* Familiarity breeds speed, not comtempt.  The more the user uses shortcut sequences, the further forward in the memory they are, and the easier they are to use.  I worked for abut a decade as a tester of FrameMaker, and app for which 99% of the commands can be accessed via three or four key sequences.  Open the Paragraph Format Designer: esc-o-p-d.  Shrinkwrap a math equation: esc-m-p.  Update master page usage: esc-o-m-u.  Etc.  Given the sheer number of commands in the app -- 250+ separate dialogs! -- getting to some of the commands could easily involve at least one menu cascade, sometimes two.  Mousing to a menu item on the top level of a short menu might be faster, but targetting a casacde in a long menu and then and item in that, and maybe to another level?  Hyper-familiar shortcuts must get the edge in there somewhere.

* Muscle memory.  Another version of familiarity.  With my hands on the keyboard, I always know where to reach for esc-o-p-d.  But once I acquire the mouse, I have to figure out where the pointer is -- or just "throw" it to the corner, but who really does that? -- and then I have to target the menu, the cascade, and the item.   In practice, every time to mouse to the command, I'm coming at it from a different direction, and I have pay attention to that.  I can't just blindly mouse to the exact right place.

* Screen sizes and resolutions have changed.  How does target acquisition change between the old 16 point type menu item on an 800 pixel/10" wide screen, vs. now with a 12 point menu on a 1280 wide/19" screen, while the keyboard is laregly unchanged.

-- Jim Drew
   Seattle, WA