Linked by Richard Wareham on Mon 8th Mar 2004 20:49 UTC
This essay describes the surprising results of a brief trial with a group of new computer users about the relative ease of the command line interface versus the GUIs now omnipresent in computer interfaces. It comes from practical experience I have of teaching computing to complete beginners or newbies as computer power-users often term them.
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In my experience, most new computer users want to learn as little as possible. The people in this study are an exception, they are taking a course on computers - they WANT to learn. Most people just want to get their mail or find porn. For this, clicking on icons is still the best solution. GUI design seems very stagnant lately, theres been more emphasis on fancy graphics and bright colours, but no new ideas, we're still stuck on icons and menus. Hopefully someday, someone will find a better way. CLI will always be a favorite tool for powerusers though.
Just my $0.02 CAD