Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!decvax!tektronix!reed!psu-cs!smethers
From: smethers@psu-cs.UUCP (Paul Smethers)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Power Users (long)
Message-ID: <463@psu-cs.UUCP>
Date: 4 Jan 88 10:42:19 GMT
References: <2373@Shasta.STANFORD.EDU>
Reply-To: smethers@psu-cs.UUCP (Paul Smethers)
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Portland State University; Portland OR
Lines: 35

I think the number one discipline anyone should take when building an
application for power users is to adhere to Apple's Standard Human
Interface Guidelines.  To adjust these for power users, I recommend
that you read Scott Knaster's new book "Macintosh Programming Secrets",
which has a very good introduction on guidelines for programming the
Macintosh (and I, for one, consider him to be a power user).

Secondly, you have my vote for as many key commands as possible.  Please
never "replace" mouse commands for key commands, but have as many key command
substitutes as possible.  These are my feelings, as I learned computers from
the keyboard (not a mouse) originally, and still feel much more productive
issuing rapid key commands as opposed to reaching for the mouse every other
second (and yes, I have memorized and use "every" Microsoft Word key command).
In the past, however, I have come to feel that my insistance on adding key
commands to products is unusual, as few people on the net seem to support
my requests.

Finally, I hope that you don't make your application "cluttered".  I hate
long menus and would rather have more fuctional menus that lead to simple
dialog boxes (or hierarchical menus) for help.  Popup menus are good for
eliminating clutter also.  I am a big-screen user myself, so I'm not asking
for reduced clutter for screen reasons, but aesthetic reasons.

By the way, what is this great product for power users?  Is it another word
processor?, or something to do with programming?  This may change my viewpoint
as I think that you can get away with less user friendliness for power (to
a minor degree) if you know that your audience is technical.  Therefore,
it would help if we knew if "power user" can be applied to the guy who writes
books and therefore uses every command in his word processor (but is not
technical), or if "power user" applies only to those who have also programmed
the Macintosh, and are looking for great productivity tools but don't need
the simple user-interface frills of a program for novices.

Paul Smethers
SmethersBarnes