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.
Permalink for comment
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
People learn and process information in many different ways. For this reason. I am bothered by the notion that one single interface is the best. The other thing that bothers me is the confusion between methodology and bad design. The problem with cascading control panels is not a methodology (i.e. GUI) problem, but just bad design (see Microsoft <grin>). Thirdly, the author's own description of Tillie's enviroment is a description of a GUI interface. The existence of many graphical objects (properly weighted and organized) provides context not available in a command line interface. My experience is quite differnt than the authors. I teach newbies to use computers and most find GUI's to be easy-to-understand at the initial introduction. Then. with more experience, it becomes very apparent that the command line interface has significant advantage in certian instances. As many readers have pointed out, a mix of GUI and command line is ideal. Then, the user that will decide which to use, based on his/her comfort level. As a side note, if linux were to build better depth into its GUI interface, it would be more acceptible to the Newbie. Finally, the myth that a mouse is difficult to use (implied in the article) is just that, a myth. The only demographic group that I have have seen have problems with a mouse are the elderly or people who have dexterity problems. This group often finds it difficult to hold the mouse still while they click. In this case, I recommend a stationary ball mouse (or whatever they are called). This helps about 90% of the time.