This article mostly applies to Mac users.

I got into an argument yesterday about the usability of keyboard shortcuts and simple mouse clicks.

QuickSilver

We all know and love QuickSilver. That cool application which is mainly used as a launcher, but let’s you do much more, triggers for example, allow you to create a shortcut for a certain command, or a combination of them. So, you can use QS to quickly launch the applications you need in a couple of keystrokes, giving you the liberty of removing the launchers from the dock.

Colin posted a picture of his dock after booting, and it’s completely empty, he uses QS to launch everything he needs. Cool.

However, i feel there are more benefits of keeping the applications on the dock but to just launch them. It may just be me, but, there are times, when i rely on the dock to keep my productivity high.
I may have a lot of things to do, and at some point i get distracted and wander off in my computer to do other stuff, and just forget what i had to do in the first place.
Here’s when the dock comes in handy: i have the habit of checking the dock every few minutes, be it to see how many unread emails i have, how many items are stocking up on NetNewsWire, or who is talking to me on iChat.
Sure, you can still do this if you launched the programs with QS and didn’t keep the icons there, but to me the coolest feature of the dock, is that it shows you exactly what’s running and what’s not.

Picture this, you’re a busy guy, and have Mail not to play any sounds when mail arrives, or to check automatically for emails, since you need to be productive and email will distract you. But for whatever the reason (you forgot to open it at boot, it crashed, etc.) it is not running. Now if you rely on QS to launch stuff and don’t keep the launcher in the dock, and you’re really busy, you won’t even notice it’s not running (after looking at the dock) and keep on doing whatever distracted you in the first place; but if you had the launcher in the dock you could easily tell it wasn’t running, and with a simple click (or two letters in QS) you’d open it. Flying you back to productivity land.

That’s the reason i keep all the applications i use sitting in the dock, regardless of their status. So that i can get back on track.

Keyboard versus Mouse

The argument was not about this “feature” of the dock though, but rather of launching apps with a single click, or with a few keystrokes.

There is no winning team here, and you can switch sides easily as well. Some love using the keyboard for everything, while others are more fond of using a mouse. We should consider the computer you’re using. In Colin’s case, he’s on a laptop (if i’m not mistaken), and so it makes a whole more sense to use the keyboard as much as possible (that is when you’re using the laptop on the go), but i think it’s a bit different when you’re on a desktop.

There’s the reasoning of using the mouse being easier than typing in the keyboard, and the one of speed.

I believe it’s easier to use the mouse to click on something in order to accomplish a certain task.
While it may be slower (considering most of the time you’d have to move your hand to the mouse; though if your hand is already on the mouse, the keyboard would be slower) most of the time, there’s no arguing about comfort or ease of use. Certainly point and click is both comfortable and easy.
Not to say typing is not as comfortable or just as easy. I guess it all is in essence a matter of where you are. If you’re set on the keyboard, or on the mouse.

To sum it all up, in every other task but launching applications i’d say a keyboard shortcut’s user would be faster (since that was the point of the discussion) than a mouse clicker. A clicker has to digg through menus to do something, while the keyboard user has the shortcuts to avoid menus.

Luckily, we don’t have to choose a side. Most computers have a keyboard and a mouse.

This is where the original discussion took place.