::scr Re: Cognitive Friction

[Tony Bowden]

On Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 08:31:07PM +0000, Andy Wardley wrote:
> I do.  Or rather, Raskin does.  He says "More than one way to do it" is
> bad in the context of user interfaces because it forces you to first
> decide how you're going to do it before you can actually do it.

Not sure I agree with this.

I like the fact that there's all these keyboard shortcuts I can use so
I don't have to reach for the mouse.

But I think this is more of a 'power user' thing.  Few beginners to any
interface want to have to know all this arcane knowledge. Even long term
'expert' users keep learning stuff about most of them (I've been using vi
for about 10 years and probably still only know about 10% of the things
I can do with it!)

Does Raskin believe that one interface can really suit beginners and
power users without either confusing the beginner or constraining the
expert?

Tony
-- 
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 Tony Bowden | tony@tmtm.com | http://www.tmtm.com/
                                            trapped in amber i'm petrified
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