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Sensible UI: no keyboard shortcuts
Reading an article on Ajaxian.com just now, I was struck by this screenshot:
Note, in the bottom left-hand corner, the keyboard shortcuts. This, to my mind is an example when keyboard shortcuts are just going to leave the user confused.
Don’t get me wrong – I love shortcuts. I rarely move my hands off they keyboard unless I have to, and one of the problems I had when I first moved to a Mac was learning and configuring things the way I like them. I don’t like using a mouse to repeat an action I think I should be able to do with a keyboard alone.
However, whilst it makes sense for my OS to have them, my browser (which I spend four or five hours a day staring at) to have them, and for my text editor (another three or four hours a day), a trivial app that I might visit once in a while just doesn’t need them. If a web application is something I’m going to spend hours per day or week looking at, such as Gmail or a calendar or an RSS reader, it might make sense. But for a survey tool site? I think they got confused somewhere along the line.
