Great point, and one of the most overlooked issues in Windows app development. It's always surprising when you notice just how much more productive people are when they're aware of the keyboard shortcuts for stuff versus mousing constantly...
Definitely a good point, but the input speed depends one the GUI app. We're currently working on a windows application which replaces a "Green screen app". Input needs to be fast, so everything can be done using the keyboard. Because we redesigned the lay-out, the input is even faster. I even think the users will enjoy(or dislike less) their work more, because of the nicer interface they are looking at all day.
Something that informed me that I knew less about UI design that I thought was the realisation that a user who spends all day in an application may have different issues than one who spends a few minutes a month (the developer, for example).
I can't claim to be a better UI designer now, just a more flexible (dare I say "agile"?)one, in that I expect to have to evolve the interface of a high-usage app as the users clock up the hours of using it.
My company actually faced this problem with our old COBOL based manufacturing system. They were looking to replace it with a newer Java or .NET solution. We have not gone forward yet, but one of the major concerns was the GUI application. People now can just zip through green screen terminals. I did a little research and found a couple of frameworks that allow you build Java green screen GUIs using curses. The implementations ran on Windows and *inxs . It was wild! Even one framework would translate the same code into and actual windows based GUI. I often wonder if I should built the same type of tool kit for .NET ;)
Why would anyone NEED to move away from a green screen app if it works?
I think we all know the answer to that... BUZZWORD COMPLIANCY!
Guy: yep. sometimes its best to keep what's working -and even build interoperability layers on top of it rather than re-write it "just becasue".
Sad truth is that I know plenty of people suffering from exactly this symptom.