These days I’ve been wondering on an important (web) issue: does the access keys really helps the end user more than confusing it?
I used access keys in different situations: a company’s site, an “amatorial” page, a very little association and so on. Every time I used them because I felt I had to do it, but not this time. I’ve been redesigning a company’s site (as I said in the previous post) that now is pretty finished, and I choose to remove the access keys. And I have at least three reasons to motivate this choice.
1. Different implementations for every browser
Let do an example: suppose we have to go to the link pointed by the access key ‘0’. Now you’re running explorer on windows, so you have to press CTRL + ALT + 0. If you are, instead, running firefox on windows, you have to press CTRL + 0. And if you run opera, you have to press ALT + 0. And wait, if you’re on linux, with firefox, you have to press ALT + 0. And, at least for me, it’s a bit confusing.
2. Shortcut redefinition
What happens if you define ‘F’ as an access key? Well, happens that you can’t use it. Not always, at least. Because you’re redefining one of the most used shortcuts: ALT + F. This means you can’t use the ‘F’ as an access key under firefox on linux and opera both on windows and on linux. And this is just an example.
3. Do you remember?
When you have more than three links with an access key defined, becomes hard to know what to press everytime. If you want to know what access key you should press, then you should see what letter is next to the link (supposing is written, as it should be). Or worst, you should pass the mouse over the link. At this point, I guess that a click is faster.
By the way I didn’t talked about disable users. I guess they uses the access keys, although I don’t know in what percentual. But they’re a restricted group, and I think that if you can make an accessible menu (I should make an entire post dedicated to this topic), you shouldn’t have any big problem.
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