*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.