Do you know of any good resources that discuss TUI user interaction/research?
I'm working on a new project to build some simple workflow applications for business, and one of the aspects I would like to attempt to resolve is the speed of input. It is painful watching operators work with modern GUI inputs, particularly web based as the mouse work slows them down horrendously. And keyboard 'shortcuts' where they exist are often anything but, as the entire GUI model assumes a mouse (or on the web a Document) first.
It is like you mention about this CSS library, it kind of misses the point in that the awesomeness of TUI is not in the appearance, but rather how workflows that the constraints of a keyboard-first interface enforce allow creative and highly efficient solutions.
When all you have is a mouse everything becomes a click, and that is a horrible way to input data.
I don't, but I hope someone else does. I can speak the language but I doubt I could teach it.
People see the aesthetics and appreciate the beauty but the best way I can describe the problem is it's like trying to write poetry in a language you do not understand. You can get the rhythm and tone but it has no substance. The aesthetics are driven from the language, the way we play, the way we speak. There's something natural to this but only when you're fluent. The art is a reflection of us. It looks like something you pull from outside, a craft to hone, a monument to build; but it will always miss because it is an expression, a feeling, it comes from you.
I don't know how to describe it like a linguist would describe a poem. There's depth they see that I don't. I only know the feel, the way Sylvia Plath can make me feel but Su Shi never will. I can appreciate it from afar but it remains foreign. I do not know the language, the culture, the context, so I can only be a stranger as if looking through glass.
But I do know this. We programmers often fail to see when building and designing things. The Zen of it is to use your things the same way you use the grass under your feet or the air you breathe. It feels weird to call the ground a tool but you use it to move. I certainly do not have the right words but I hope the meaning is clear. The point is to build something that feels as natural as the air you breathe. A space to live in and makes you feel free. It's okay if this has to be learned but there's something more I don't know how to describe. It's like saying it's okay to learn a new language but recognizing that the concept of language itself is natural and part of us. Even without a language we still speak, there is a drive to make sound, to communicate, to express. It makes language inevitable yet as difficult to describe in detail as the beating of your own heart. It's just you
But an editor is something where you navigate for a long time, whereas the average web page navigation is brief. In 99.99% of the cases, it doesn't make sense to attach a (complex) keyboard interface to it, and a specifically vim-like interface even less.
> When all you have is a mouse everything becomes a click, and that is a horrible way to input data.
Quite a few people access web pages via a table or phone. Touch is often easier than a mouse (not always, though), and can also outdo a keyboard.
I think web-based TUI is a very small niche. Large-scale data entry might be about the only place where it could work, but then you'd want a highly tailored, ergonomic, user-friendly interface.
I'm working on a new project to build some simple workflow applications for business, and one of the aspects I would like to attempt to resolve is the speed of input. It is painful watching operators work with modern GUI inputs, particularly web based as the mouse work slows them down horrendously. And keyboard 'shortcuts' where they exist are often anything but, as the entire GUI model assumes a mouse (or on the web a Document) first.
It is like you mention about this CSS library, it kind of misses the point in that the awesomeness of TUI is not in the appearance, but rather how workflows that the constraints of a keyboard-first interface enforce allow creative and highly efficient solutions.
When all you have is a mouse everything becomes a click, and that is a horrible way to input data.