Questions tagged [keyboard]
physical interface for entering text character by character.
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Concrete suggestions for dealing with a keyboard without direct Home, End, PageUp, PageDown keys (Fn activated)
First I apologize if this site is not the right place to ask this question. Please feel free to suggest an alternative stackexchange site that suits better the question.
The situation is the following:...
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Has there been any research on one-handed Dvorak layout and smartphone (swipe) keyboard travel distance?
The Dvorak simplified keyboard is optimised for low finger travel distance, leading to faster typing and less wrist pain compared to the Qwerty layout. On a smartphone, most people effectively only ...
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Is there a database or guide for existing keyboard shortcuts or conventions?
Is there a database or extensive guide on existing keyboard shortcuts or conventions for UX developers?
Could be useful to:
avoid keyboard shortcut conflicts with existing software that will be
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Tab order of floating buttons
We have a live support chat on our website, accessible via a button that always floats in the bottom right of the page, above other content. This chat widget inserts itself as the first child of the ...
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Why are there no arrow keys on most mobile on-screen keyboards?
When typing on smartphones or tablets it is very cumbersome to move the cursor to a different position. Why is it that the onscreen keyboards on these devices usually don't have left/right arrow ...
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Why do keyboard keys have (most) letters in top left corner?
I was just looking at my keyboard (Logitech K200) for the millionth time and realized that the names of each key were "mostly" in the top left. The row of numbers at the top is just left aligned with ...
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Why do the Western European countries use the AZERTY keyboard? What is the historical origin of this layout?
Most countries in the world use the QWERTY keyboard. The Central and Eastern European countries: Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, ...
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How to Address Keyboard Limitations for Users without a Numeric Keypad?
I'm currently working on a web application where users can use their keyboard number pads (mainly the following keys 2,4,5,6,8) to change perspectives from which the user is watching a 3D scene. For ...
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What is the maximum allowable time between two keystrokes in progressive keyboard shortcuts?
A lot of modern web applications (like Atlassian) have progressive keyboard shortcuts instead of modifier ones, where in two keys are pressed in progression to invoke the action unlike modifier ...
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Why are the keys on a keyboard square?
Some of the keys on a keyboard are rectangular in shape, and the Enter key is often a strange shape, but the majority of keys are square. But there could be other possible shapes for those keys.
For ...
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Can modern personal computer users do without a tab key?
I am sketching designs for a prospective minimalist personal computer keyboard.
I am considering omitting a TAB key. In this case, a user needing a tab would press some function key together with one ...
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Why are keyboard numpads on the right-hand side?
All standard computer keyboards have numpad (numeric keypad) on the right-hand side. Why is it so?
I have recently switched to a laptop without a numpad. This lets me have the mouse in a much more ...
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Why do numpads on keyboards and phones have reversed layouts?
I came across this on the web. It's supposed to be funny, but we all know better :)
So, why are the numpad layouts different, and what are the reasons behind each?
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Are there any right hand dominant alternatives to Dvorak keyboard layouts that are about as old as Dvorak?
Dvorak is unique in that it is right hand dominant.
Are there any keyboard layouts that are similar in that way that are about the same age to Dvorak(1936) by August Dvorak?
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Should I use the name "Enter" or "Return" key?
I'm trying to list the what various keys do inside the documentation for my CLI program, but I'm not sure what to refer to this key as. It is commonly referred to as either Enter or Return, but which ...
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Does the windows key only operate on release?
I noticed that the windows button only activates when you are no longer pressing down on it. However, I have found no documentation or article to verify that that this is either inherently true, or ...
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Why CTRL + C multiple times [duplicate]
I have recently noticed that I press CTRL + C more than once, even if I know that the file has been copied to the clipboard. But I press CTRL + X or CTRL + V only once.
Why do I do this? Is this ...
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Keyboard shortcuts on non-QWERTY keyboard layouts
I've been using the Dvorak keyboard layout for a few years, and something that's always bothered me is keyboard shortcuts. On a QWERTY keyboard copy and paste are conveniently positioned as Ctrl+C and ...
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Why don't mobile keyboards have a delete button?
We can install additional third-party keyboards to get a delete button. But I wonder why we don't have it out of box?
Is there any research that shows the delete key is less used compared to other ...
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Why Greek letter mu (μ) on European keyboards?
AZERTY-style keyboard layouts in France and Belgium have a dedicated key for typing the Greek small letter mu (μ). While not having a dedicated (μ) key, keyboards in Germany, Denmark, Finland, Iceland,...
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Designing bidi text editing
Background. "Bidi" refers to the bidirectional text, that is a text where traditional left-to-right scripts are intermixed with right-to-left ones, such as Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi, Thaana, etc. Such ...
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How to improve the smartphone keyboard layout?
I have loads of problems with the small keys on my smartphone as my fingers cover them completely. I guess most people have the same problem.
The Qwerty keyboard layout was designed for ten-finger ...
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Why do modern keyboards have Scroll Lock?
The Scroll Lock key is useless in the modern day, and some higher-end keyboards don't even have it:
Same can be said for the Pause and Break keys, but however it pauses the BIOS POST output on many ...
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Why is the keyboard navigation and selection different for a group of checkboxes vs radio?
We are working on a multi-step survey flow that involves both single select radio options and multi-select checkbox options. We want to make sure it is easy to use for Keyboard users and have been ...
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Making an intuitive keyboard with only a joystick and a few buttons
I have an 8 direction joystick and a few buttons, layed out like an original ps1 controller but with a joystick instead of the d-pad.
I am trying to come up with an intuitive on-screen keyboard that's ...
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Keyboard navigation over repeating informational elements
I have a UI like this.
The user navigates through a list of people. To the right, there are two labels: Assigned and Active. A mouse user can click on the label to see some help text, as shown on the ...
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Is it good to put search box above the keyboard?
Here's the case, I'm designing for a text editor on iphone, user wants to search keyword in the article the just wrote. We don't have the suggest results (things pop out when you're searching in yelp),...
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Why do physical keyboards still have built-in numpads?
Normally I use a wireless keyboard without a number pad and a mouse right next to it. Having started a new job, I was finding my right arm somewhat more sore. This was confusing until I realized:
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Enter key action on modal dialogs
The action of the Escape key on a modal dialog is clear in that it closes the dialog, effectively clicking a 'Cancel' button or similar.
However, what is the current consensus of the Enter key while ...
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Does including a Konami-code triggered Easter Egg negatively impact keyboard accessibility?
On an open-source project I'm involved in, one of our devs added a mini-game for April Fools Day, which could be opened and played by pressing the Konami Code sequence on your keyboard (up, up, down, ...
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Are there any recent studies of the "Keyboard vs Mouse"-issue?
Back in the late 80's, Apple Human Interface concluded that the mouse is faster than the keyboard, objectively. But also that every test person subjectively thought that the keyboard was faster.
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Best practices/rationale for unified vs separate keyboard/mouse navigation of lists?
Context
I'm in the process of designing/implementing a filterable object creation palette with categorized results for a visual content creation application. I'm trying to decide how to handle ...
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Usability of Ctrl + Enter Submitting of Forms
In my web app I want to give the possibility of submitting every form with Ctrl + Enter shortcut.
What is better:
submit the form with keyboard only when one of the fields of this form is focused
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Reason for difference in behaviour of autcomplete interactions in input fields
There seems to be two different schools of thought when it comes to the autocompletion of input fields and I am wondering if there is a particular reason or rationale for each.
Basically, when the ...
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Which event type is preferable for keyboard interactions, "key up" or "key down"?
When implementing keyboard interactions, platforms provide two kinds of event: "key up" and "key down". For example:
The browser provides keyup and keydown.
macOS provides NSEvent....
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Page of carousels - Skip links / best keyboard navigation
This question relates to UX with keyboard navigation and a11y for screen reader users.
We have an app that uses multiple carousels of movies, similar to Netflix or Disney+, with their respective ...
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What would be a better typing experience in landscape mode of a keyboard?
While designing a keyboard app for android, I went through a lot of testing of various existing keyboards. One thing found in common was that typing in landscape mode of every keyboard wasn't very ...
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Why isn't the apostrophe on the 'front page' of mobile virtual keyboards?
In terms of punctuation marks the apostrophe, must be used almost as much as commas or full stops. Yet it doesn't get a front screen ( single press ) on either of the mobile keyboards I have loaded (...
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Is it good to change keyboard's input language automatically in JavaScript?
In some websites, there are forms to be filled by the end-user.
In multilingual contexts, some developers try to change the input language of the keyboard or hook to the field that should be filled ...
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Are there any benefits of Click or Tap Volume?
I can't think of any benefit to emit an audible sound when one clicks or taps on a touchscreen or desktop. However, I have dealt with legacy products that have done this, not just on destructive ...
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What are the most common special characters used in email addresses?
I'm working on an onscreen keyboard for a kiosk-type application where the user can type in their email address using that keyboard.
We will have a 'more symbols' type button to toggle the keyboard ...
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Keyboard Shortcut For "Delay"
I'm currently building a web application which does task management.
A very common function is to "delay" the current task, which means it will be postponed until some point in the future. There's ...
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Why is the caps lock key often so big on a keyboard?
It seems that the caps lock key is not a frequently used key on a computer keyboard yet on all the keyboards I have used, it is afforded a significant amount of interface real estate, often as much as ...
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Collapsible navigation sidebar and Bootstrap Dropdown, are these similar?
This is a control panel for administrators. The collapsible sidebar you see below contains links to other pages related to administration.
This image shows me navigating with the TAB key, ...
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Focus behavior in a modal navigation drawer?
How should focus ideally behave in a modal navigation drawer (much like the one from Material Design)? The modal would appear when I webpage is viewed on a small screen, be opened using a hamburger ...
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Soft input panel for 480x320 LCD screen
I'm working on a Qt-based C++ project. The project includes a 480x320 TFT LCD screen for display. The screen is also capacitive and used for touch-based input. The screen is about the size of a credit ...
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Why are keyboard keys staggered?
In every keyboard that I have used, the keys are arranged so that the keys are staggered a small increment to the left from the previous row. Q is above and slightly to the left of A, and A is above ...
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For a command to increase something, should instructions refer to the "+" key or the "=" key?
Our software uses the =/+ and -/_ keys for opposite tasks. For example, increasing or decreasing a value, or zooming in or out. No modifier keys are used.
Here is the conundrum:
If we refer to it as ...
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Tab order through a matrix of radio buttons
I'm building an HTML form where the user can select one of three options for each day of the week. The wireframe proposed by the designer looks like this: a matrix of radio buttons, with columns for ...
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Which platforms support a Hyper modifier key?
I've seen that some platforms support the modifier key Hyper (separate from Ctrl, Alt, Shift, Super/Cmd/Windows modifier keys).
While this is not a common modifier, It's available in X11, and I read ...
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