There is a learning curve, but not coping. One of the crest things with terminal: with experience one can type ahead, even before the form fully opened one can type data, which is queued in the input buffer and work efficiently. In a modern GUI application a lot of time is wasted with reaching for the mouse, aiming and waiting for the new form to render. That requires coping with it
I had to interact with a windows software which allows you to collect data with a digital form. We used it to digitize paper based survey by mapping free form question to a choices list.
The best oart was that it was entirely keyboard driven. If you can touch type, you can just read the paper and type away. The job was mind numbing, but the software itself was great.
Case in point: the aforementioned accountant obviously hated the new GUI-based app, exactly because of what you said. Aiming the mouse, looking for that button, etc. slows you down.
Not only implement, but implement them consistently and making users aware.
Consistency is a thing. Old windows apps often followed a style guide to some degree, that was lost with web (while it's also hard, as styleguides differ between systems, like Windows and Mac) and wasn't ever as close as Mainframe terminal things where function keys had global effects.
Indeed. One of the things I keep having to tell younger people is: “webapps have no HIG!”
All of the major platforms have a HIG that tells developers how to maximize the experience for users. Webapps have dozens of ways to do things like “search”. Those who never developed for a platform with a HIG do not value it and keep reinventing everything.
