Comment by oneeyedpigeon
15 hours ago
Do you have an example of how supporting a keyboard shortcut for every action could be bad for a general audience?
15 hours ago
Do you have an example of how supporting a keyboard shortcut for every action could be bad for a general audience?
Devil's advocate: showing the relevant keyboard shortcuts in the UI can be overwhelming (or at least one of many parts that all together become overwhelming) to new users, while not having them shown at all makes them undiscoverable.
I think this is a bad reason. Even MS Office has made this work. But I've seen people act on this type of argument. If nothing else, it should be possible to have a settings menu where you can define your own. Even if no shortcuts are set by default and they aren't shown anywhere else in the UI, it will still be possible for a power user to make the best use of the program.
> showing the relevant keyboard shortcuts in the UI can be overwhelming
Underlining the accelerator key is subtle and shouldn't be overwelming. Keyboard navigation unaware users probably won't even notice.
This works poorly if you intend to localise your application. Great if you don't though.
11 replies →
> showing the relevant keyboard shortcuts in the UI can be overwhelming
Every application did it for decades after the first Xerox guidelines up until Microsoft and Apple decided to retire the concept of usability some time around 2010.
At least Apple still shows them when you hold option. At least they did when I still used a Mac.
something something smartphones
> Devil's advocate: showing the relevant keyboard shortcuts in the UI can be overwhelming
That is not a requirement, having access to menus, a master help shortcut ir fuzzy search actions shorcut are other options.