Keyboard versus Mouse: Which one is faster to use

Md. Adnan Quaium

Lecturer
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology
adnan.quaium@gmail.com
www.maq.spyw.com

Who doesn’t know what is a Keyboard and what is a mouse? I guess it is a silly question especially in today’s world where Personal Computers (PC) are like parts of the life. They are the two main input devices of a PC. But if I ask among them which one has a faster functionality? Well, I guess no answer! I doubt, how many people think in this way. Actually people don’t bother about the speed rather than comfort. If any one is comfort with mouse it is very difficult to sooth the use of keyboard. Actually both input devices need some training to get used to. I found such people who can’t even control the mouse pointer!

The rise of “Mouse”

Though Stanford Research Institute invented the mouse in 1963, with the release of the Apple Macintosh in 1984 mice became the part of all the Apple PCs. At that time Apple was using GUI (Graphical User Interface) Macintosh OS (Operating System). GUI was more users friendly than a CLI (Command Line Interface), which attracted more users. Even a non-technical person knowing no computer programming can easily handle the PC smoothly, just by clicking on the various icons. As a result mice got wide popularity at that time which made it another input device besides keyboard for a PC. Thus the story of the second input device was begun.

B: Introduction to CKIT- 06A

Which one is handy?

Experienced mouse users are effectively capable of moving the pointer from one side of the screen to the other side to click on a tiny button within a fraction of a second. Besides moving and aiming the pointer, they know how to use the two buttons and the scroll wheel at the right moment simultaneously. Advanced mouse users sometimes use mouse-gesture enabled applications to perform even more functions with the mouse. Experienced keyboard users are able to reach high key rates using all ten fingers. Besides high-speed data entry, they also use the CTRL and ALT keys to navigate through applications.

But persons who have reached the highest levels in using both devices are rare to find. Mouse-wizards usually type with two or three fingers, while keyboard enthusiast loose time navigating by his two hands. The problem is that we have only two hands, which seems not enough! Efficient and perfect use of both devices requires three hands: two for the keyboard and on for the mouse. Depending on the type of work done mostly frequently, people become either mouse-addicted or keyboard-bound. But not the wizard of both gadgets.

The Debate

Bruce Tognazzini (a.k.a.Tog) is a well-known user-interface expert with the Nielsen Norman Group, the "dream team" firm specializing in human-computer interaction and was Apple employee. Once he wrote in his website that while continuing a $50 million of Research on the Apple Human Interface, his team discovered two pertinent facts:

• Test subjects consistently report that keyboarding is faster than mousing.
• The stopwatch consistently proves mousing is faster than keyboarding.

According to Tognazzini, cursoring around required a higher level of mental planning to organize the interaction, which apparently obscures the perception of the passage of time-think of being deeply engaged in something and being surprised when user look at a clock whereas the use of the mouse was done at a lower mechanical level that left the mind free for higher things, such as complaining about the mouse. One common complaint is that moving hand from keyboard to mouse and back takes time and interrupts typing. This is true, but it doesn't take as much time as we think. Especially if user is using a keyboard without a numeric keypad, the mouse can be close by. With or without a keypad, eventually we get to the point where we don't need to look for the mouse. Our hand always leaves it in the same general place and automatically goes there, often in preparation for a mouse operation while the other hand is still typing.

But some opposes Tognazzini’s idea. To them typing and navigate with keyboard is much more faster even in a GUI PC. Because in this case user don’t wasting the time for switch his hand between mouse and keyboard. This facility adds keyboard shortcuts, which makes life easier for the geeks. According to those geeks any task we perform often enough to learn the keyboard shortcut by heart is a faster process for using the keyboard, otherwise using the mouse is faster. This means that when one begin using a new command frequently, one has to go through a period of slower performance in order to learn the keyboard shortcut, after which he/she should be faster.

Last Words

For a novice PC user mice are faster but for a hunt-and-peck typist keyboard is obviously the first choice. But what will happen if a user uses both devices? I know most of the people will not believe, but there are some persons who can type in one hand and use mouse in other hand. Despite of their one handed typing their speed is almost 60 word-per-minute to 70 word-per-minute! Are they achieving the highest performance from a PC? Don’t know the exact answer. But it is sure that they are above the ultimate battle between keyboard and mouse, which they left for the general PC users.