I have read so many articles here on UXechange and did not really get any further, so I dare to ask this onceagain.
We're planning a new web-application for inhouse business (we are using IE9). Our old business application was running on an IBM System i (AS400) and so users are used to work with their keyboards instead of the mouse (AS400 = terminal / text mode only).
Of course the new web app offers a plethora of possibilities of how to handle input and usage of data. Right now we are discussing whether to include keyboard shortcuts, and if yes, which we should use. And in our team, nearly everyone has a differnt approach to this topic.
- Should we override standard IE-shortcuts? We are thinking about Ctrl-S for Save, Ctrl-N for New, Ctrl-P for Print and Ctrl+F4 to close a business object within the application, etc.
- Should we take our well-known shortcuts from our old world (AS400)? For example F6 for New, F12/F3 for exit/closing business object?
In our new web application we distinguish between two major patterns. The first is bulk-data-processing (repetitive steps for many records). And the second is individual data processing (processing that one record when you need to deal with it). We could even go that far to say that bulk-processing is happening only in our services-departements, whereas the individual processing is taking place in our "production"-departements.
Yet all these applications should follow the same rules and guidelines, incorporating the same shortcuts (or not).
I DO have an own opinion on this topic, but I do not want to influence anyone by this.
Would be great to get some ideas... Thanks a lot.
PS: English is not my primary language - so pls bare with me if I made some mistakes