Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!elroy!mahendo!jplgodo!wlbr!scgvaxd!ashtate!dbase!drc
From: drc@dbase.UUCP (Dennis Cohen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Pull down menus.
Message-ID: <328@dbase.UUCP>
Date: 10 Mar 88 14:38:52 GMT
References: <4129@hoptoad.uucp> <283@rhesus.primate.wisc.edu> <1710@ssc-vax.UUCP> <1739@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Organization: Ashton Tate Development Center Glendale Cal.
Lines: 34

In article <1739@ssc-vax.UUCP>, benoni@ssc-vax.UUCP (Charles L Ditzel) writes:
> I take it you believe them?
> I have worked on a one-button mac and three button Apollos and Suns and
> I hold the opposite opinion (and obviously those companies must share
> that opinion since they give you three button mice).  I tend to work
> much faster on a three button mouse (three functions versus one function).
> When I go back to the Mac the one-button mouse seems completely awkward
> and lacking flexibility.  Obviously there must be a point of no return -
> i wouldn't want to work on a 92-button mouse :-)

I don't know whether he believes them, but I do.  You'll note the use of the
word, "average", in the discussion.  That was the key to the investigation.  I
personally find three button mice pretty easy to use, but a number of people I
have worked with found them very difficult to adapt to at first (and found them
tough to use if they didn't use the system on a regular basis).  This is not
the case with the one-button mouse.  Most people are computerphobes and if you
give them a number of options to begin with, they block the whole thing out.
If you give them one simple, consistent method they are less likely to reject
what is being offered.  There is an interesting analogy here to VCRs.  I've
seen some articles of late describing studies showing that a significant number
of VCR owners don't know how to program their recorders and often use them
strictly as a playback mechanism for rented tapes.  The studies say that the
first discussion of how to program the recorder sounded complicated, so the
people said, "Uh, huh." and then blocked it out.

Those of us that work with these systems on a regular basis have little trouble
adapting to something new, but we're a small percentage of the available
market.  Apple wanted the Mac to be like an appliance, and appliances don't
sell well if they're at all complicated to learn to use.

Dennis Cohen
Ashton-Tate Macintosh Division
dBASE Mac Development Team
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Disclaimer:  Any opinions expressed above are those of the author.