[Novalug] Interfaces (was Re: What to put on a G4 Laptop?)

[Geoff McNamara]

I will contend that the "intuitive" property of an interface is only one
important aspect - the other is "productivity".

My wife could do accounting input without ever taking her hand off of the
keyboard in a text based environment. When the gui interface came along
with the mouse and "window frame heaven" - where everything would "work
the same" and therefore be intuitive - it hammered her productivity. No
longer could she get work done with the efficiency she could before - the
gui environment required constant attention to the screen and hands
switching from the keyboard to the mouse and back to the keyboard.  In the
text world it was almost a requirement to have shortcuts for every menu
item - now you have to hunt for them or create your own.

I apologize for sliding off topic and inviting perhaps another religious
flame war but I have always felt strongly about the need to pay attention
to productivity of an interface.

-geoff mcnamara


>  On Fri, 27 Feb 2009, rarob at comcast.net wrote:
>
>  > <snip>
>  > ----- Original Message -----
>  >
>  >
>  > In terms of computer use, "intuitive", is in my opinion based mostly on
>  > past experience. There is nothing in our lives that really mimics using
> a
>  > computer.
>  >
>  > <snip>
>  >
>  > I wonder if there have been any studies about that.  I agree with you
> btw.
>  >
>
>   About 10 years ago Nathaniel Borenstein was a HCI prof at U-Mich
> and tried to determine/develop an intuitive user interface.
>
>   After a semester or so of work, the conclusion was that whatever
> you learned first was intuitive, and everything else was wrong, or
> at least strange.
>
>   I don't believe this work was ever published.
>
>   I think we might be approaching something obvious with the
> wand and 2-finger things coming from the wii and related work.
>
>   One problem is that the most efficient tools are divorced from
> their real-world analogs.
>
>   A keyboard is very non-intuitive for a way to write. Graffiti is more
> intuitive, and a lot slower than typing.  Chording keyboards look
> interesting, but I understand they are even harder than a QWERTY keyboard
> to learn to use.
>
>   A trackball/mouse/pencil eraser/whatever is not like pointing
> your finger, or just moving your eyes to gain focus on something, but
> these are the best tools for pointers we've developed to date.
>
>   In a WIMP mode - the idea of a display on a set of goggles,
> with a finger gadget to move the windows to the center, instead of
> moving your head to look at the various windows might be closer
> to the real-world thing we're emulating.
>
>   Or maybe not.
>
>   Clif
>
>
> --
> ... Clif Flynt ... http://www.cwflynt.com ... clif at cflynt.com ...
> .. Tcl/Tk: A Developer's Guide (2nd edition) - Morgan Kauffman ..
> ... 16'th Annual Tcl/Tk Conference:  2009,  Portland, OR  USA ...
> .............  http://www.tcl.tk/community/tcl2009/  ............
>
>
>
>
>
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