*whispers softly* the reason that mice have taken precedence over the keyboard isn't because designers don't know what they're doing but because muscle-memory works to your disadvantage when the app you're writing is changing aspects of its design every other month, like any modern web app

because keyboards provide a discrete set of points, your brain will quickly learn them WHICH IS GREAT if your app never changes BUT means that backwards-incompatible features provide really bad UX

(there is also a steeper learning curve with keyboard design because the connection "key X = Y function" takes time to build, even if you have it written right there on the screen. clicking is extremely intuitive.)

@kibi

Steeper learning curve for keyboard driven interfaces? Nah.

Most interfaces, if well designed, can be learned quickly.

You ever work retail? Most retail Point of Sale systems (at least, ~10 years ago when I was working retail) are keyboard driven and they are fantasticly fast. New hires learned the system in only a few hours.

Our tocuhscreen based systems, for U-scan and the like, took several days of training, and still proved too complicated for lots of employees.

@ajroach42 @kibi It’s notable that EVERY example I’ve seen in favor of keyboards’ learning curve has been a POS system. It’s entirely possible that keyboards are easier to learn there. But they’re single-purpose, single-designer systems. Modern computers aren’t, and the same lessons don’t apply.

@noelle @kibi I think that might be because it was the only real keyboard driven, non-command line environment that survived in to the modern age.

I'm certainly not saying that keyboard driven interfaces are the only way forward, or should always be used over mice, but they shouldn't be forgotten or dismissed out of hand, either.

@ajroach42 @noelle @kibi For the record I am saying those things, GUIs suck