[Usability] Go/Send buttons

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

On 1 Feb, 2006, at 4:08 AM, Evandro Giovanini wrote:
> ...
>  The Go button:
>
>  1) makes life easier for some people (the example you mentioned), and;
>  2) makes the user experience more annoying for some people (point and 
> click a small button instead of just pressing Enter after typing a URL 
> with they keyboard).
> ...

More precisely, someone who expects to see a Go button when there isn't 
one might take ten or fifteen seconds (admittedly quite a long time) to 
work out that they need to press Enter instead. But from then on, they 
know; they might be a bit hesitant the second and third times, but 
after that it becomes natural.

On the other hand, every time someone clicks the Go button just because 
it's there, the obvious thing to do, they take two or three seconds 
longer than they would by pressing Enter. (And unlike most mouse vs. 
keyboard fights, the mouse users can't use the time-to-mouse to think 
about what to do next, because this is a Web browser or an instant 
messenger where they're going to need to wait several seconds for the 
result anyway.)

So within a couple of days of solid browser use, or a few minutes of 
instant messenger use, they've spent more than fifteen seconds total in 
clicking that button, more time than they would have spent learning to 
press Enter. From then on, you're sucking time out of their lives. 
Don't do that.

--
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/