Keyboard is great sometimes, but do they have mouse control too? If I'm watching videos when I'm in bed I'm pretty mouse reliant, but if I'm coding then the more I can do on a keyboard the better
(awesome 4.x is more mouse friendly than awesome 3.5: in addition to the above, you can also change a few client modes with the mouse: float/tiled, maximize, stick (ie. display on all workspaces), on-top, close.)
Keyboard only: adding/removing columns/masters, moving a client to the master area, resize master area, move client to another workspace/screen.