We're having a little discussion in the Teachers' Lounge (a site-wide chatroom for ♦ moderators).

Sometimes, we need to destroy accounts (e.g. in the case of spammers). This is an operation which involves going to the user's profile and a couple of clicks in the following dialogs (not unlike flagging a post or voting to close it). Most dialogs on Stack Exchange have keyboard shortcuts enabled, which (once you get used to them) are a lot faster than clicking.

The keyboard shortcuts for destroying an account are almost working, but one of the moderators argued that one shouldn't use keyboard shortcuts for a dangerous, irreversible process like this; it's just too easy to make mistakes, destroying a user even if it wasn't your intention. For those of you who are worried: destroying a user with keyboard shortcuts still takes five or six keystrokes; that's unlikely to happen by accident.

This discussion lead to my (generalized) question. Has there been any research on the following:

Are users more likely to make mistakes with functionality which is easier to access?

_{(Of course, if it's easier to access, it will probably be used more often, leading to more mistakes. I'm interested in the relative amount.)}

Personal experience with this could be helpful as well, but please refrain from misusing anecdotal evidence (of the "I once made a mistake because of ..." type).

We're having a little discussion in the Teachers' Lounge (a site-wide chatroom for ♦ moderators).

Sometimes, we need to destroy accounts (e.g. in the case of spammers). This is an operation which involves going to the user's profile and a couple of clicks in the following dialogs (not unlike flagging a post or voting to close it). Most dialogs on Stack Exchange have keyboard shortcuts enabled, which (once you get used to them) are a lot faster than clicking.

The keyboard shortcuts for destroying an account are almost working, but one of the moderators argued that one shouldn't use keyboard shortcuts for a dangerous, irreversible process like this; it's just too easy to make mistakes, destroying a user even if it wasn't your intention. For those of you who are worried: destroying a user with keyboard shortcuts still takes five or six keystrokes; that's unlikely to happen by accident.

This discussion lead to my (generalized) question. Has there been any research on the following:

• Are users more likely to make mistakes with functionality which is easier to access?

_{(Of course, if it's easier to access, it will probably be used more often, leading to more mistakes. I'm interested in the relative amount.)}

Personal experience with this could be helpful as well, but please refrain from misusing anecdotal evidence (of the "I once made a mistake because of ..." type).

We're having a little discussion in the Teachers' Lounge (a site-wide chatroom for ♦ moderators).

Sometimes, we need to destroy accounts (e.g. in the case of spammers). This is an operation which involves going to the user's profile and a couple of clicks in the following dialogs (not unlike flagging a post or voting to close it). Most dialogs on Stack Exchange have keyboard shortcuts enabled, which (once you get used to them) are a lot faster than clicking.

The keyboard shortcuts for destroying an account are almost working, but one of the moderators argued that one shouldn't use keyboard shortcuts for a dangerous, irreversible process like this; it's just too easy to make mistakes, destroying a user even if it wasn't your intention. This leads to my (generalized) question. Has there been any research on the following:

Are users more likely to make mistakes with functionality which is easier to access?

_{(Of course, if it's easier to access, it will probably be used more often, leading to more mistakes. I'm interested in the relative amount.)}

Personal experience with this could be helpful as well, but please refrain from anecdotal evidence.

We're having a little discussion in the Teachers' Lounge (a site-wide chatroom for ♦ moderators).

Sometimes, we need to destroy accounts (e.g. in the case of spammers). This is an operation which involves going to the user's profile and a couple of clicks in the following dialogs (not unlike flagging a post or voting to close it). Most dialogs on Stack Exchange have keyboard shortcuts enabled, which (once you get used to them) are a lot faster than clicking.

The keyboard shortcuts for destroying an account are almost working, but one of the moderators argued that one shouldn't use keyboard shortcuts for a dangerous, irreversible process like this; it's just too easy to make mistakes, destroying a user even if it wasn't your intention. For those of you who are worried: destroying a user with keyboard shortcuts still takes five or six keystrokes; that's unlikely to happen by accident.

This discussion lead to my (generalized) question. Has there been any research on the following:

Are users more likely to make mistakes with functionality which is easier to access?

_{(Of course, if it's easier to access, it will probably be used more often, leading to more mistakes. I'm interested in the relative amount.)}

Personal experience with this could be helpful as well, but please refrain from misusing anecdotal evidence (of the "I once made a mistake because of ..." type).