Questions tagged [keyboard]
physical interface for entering text character by character.
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Why dvorak's layout left home row is AOEIU?
I am trying to learn to type in dvorak keyboard, but I am having hard time with the vowels. I am ok with the consontants, but I am wandering why Dvorak didn't make it more simple to AEIOU for the left ...
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Why are keyboards, mice designed to make sound when pressed and clicked?
Why are PC keyboards designed to be audible when they are pressed? That, IMHO, is a totally unnecessary thing as it generates noise that might disturb a peer who is studying nearby.
The other thing ...
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Tab to whole item group or button within item group?
This is my first post in User Experience, so hopefully this is the right place for my question. It's a question there may not be a definitive answer to, but hopefully someone might be able to help ...
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Is 'single click to select' list item wrong if its only used to show position?
For a PC messenger like application, in the 'Inbox' view, messages are arranged in a list.
I have a mouse hover state and a selected state. the selected state is invoked by clicking once on the item, ...
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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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Should 'ABC' keyboard layout be used in single-purpose devices?
I have noticed, that some (well, quite many!) single-purpose devices (like: GPS for a car or some photo frames) use 'ABC' keyboard layout as default one, instead of the (local) standard QWERTY. And in ...
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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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Mouseovers should be activated using keyboard?
In usability.gov's Research-Based Web Design and Usability Guides in section 3:7, "Ensure that Scripts Allow Accessibility" says：
Whenever a script changes the content of a page, the change must be ...
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Keyboard number row ordering
On a typical keyboard, why is the 0 in the number row next to the 9 instead of the 1?
This seems like a question which should have a straight-forward answer, but the only one I could find is this ...
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Why F1 is the default help key?
Why F1 is the default function key of the keyboard used by many applications/operative systems to show help information to the user?
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Keyboard hiding lower buttons on small Android screens
I have a application (Android) which have scroll activity form. On which there is a button for next screen (lowest of scroll). It's looking fine on large screens of android devices. But keyboard hides ...
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How should keyboard mnemonics be localized?
Is there a standard approach to localizing (internationalize) keyboard mnemonics?
For example, in Windows Notepad in English, if the user types Alt+E then P, the Edit menu opens and then the Paste ...
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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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Behavior of the Enter button in a form
What is a better experience for a user if they press enter when using a form?
Should it submit the form or move to the next field?
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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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Tab order for previous/next buttons in a form
We have a multi-step form that has 2 buttons (Previous and Next) at the bottom of each page.
The Previous button is on the bottom left-hand side, and the Next on the bottom right-hand side.
What ...
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What is the reason behind the upper-case-lower-case behaviour of the Apple iOS keyboard?
On Windows and Android phones/tablets the case of the keypad letters alters when pressing SHIFT:
But Apple seems to ignore this presumably useful feature. Does Apple really know it's better NOT to ...
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Delay on keystroke when search as you type
I'm deploying an instant search on my Windows app. At the first implementation, when the user types a key, the search engine makes a query and returns the results. I thought that that wasn't too ...
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Swipe specific keyboard?
QWERTY was used to prevent the arms of a typewriter from clashing.
DVORAK is made for productivity (~70% of the typing on the homerow)
If you use a swipe keyboard (as available on android 4.2?, swype ...
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Hangman game on mobile - Qwerty or alphabetical keyboard
I'm building a hangman game as part of a bigger mobile educational application. As you know for hangman you select letters and see if they are part of the word or sentence. I'm trying to decide if I ...
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Is there a way to simplify the input of a canadian postal code on a mobile form [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What’s the Best Interface for Entering Canadian Postal Codes on a Smartphone Keyboard?
In Canada, postal code are structured that way
A1A 1A1
A = Letters
1 = Numbers
So for ...
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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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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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What are the costs of forcing a switch between mouse and keyboard?
If a user is entering text at a keyboard, then is forced to use their mouse for something (e.g. clicking a button in a modal dialog), what are the time and cognitive costs of that? Similarly, when ...
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Hide controls on a touch enabled device and only show them if someone uses a mouse?
We're building a responsive web site and we're having a discussion about how to display controls on a map. The theory is that people with touch-enabled devices do not need to see zoom sliders because ...
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Unintuitive order of vi directional keys
Currently unix text editor vi has the following keys for navigation.
h move left
j move down
k move up
l move right
On keyboard they aligned: Left, Down, Up, Right
But while ...
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Is there research that shows that users don't like typing on virtual keyboards?
A widespread assumption among UX professionals says that users are not keen to use the virtual keyboard. Guidelines for mobile UX recommend to minimise text entry, suggest that typing holds back the ...
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Keyboard navigation (tabbing) and expand/ collapse headers
We are documenting tabbing navigation standards around forms with expand/collapse sections.
Should tabbing through an open section subsequently open and tab through a closed section?
Is there a ...
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Keyboard shortcut for validating a field
I'm designing a web application where the user have to go through a lots of already fillec text fields (~50 a page, could be lots of pages) and must correct some of them and mark the other as "OK".
...
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Why most websites don't use keyboard shortcuts?
I was wondering that why websites don't use keyboard shortcuts as often as desktop software tends to.
I really like keyboard shortcuts in software, they makes me work more efficiently. But why don't ...
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Is Opera right to allow the output element to be selectable?
I was running some tests on the <output> element and noticed that in Opera when tabbing over the inputs, it selects the <output> property.
It kind of took me off guard because I wouldn't ...
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Why isn't a keyboard in alphabetic order?
Mobile Phone Keyboard Redesign
A normal keyboard way designed to be typed with both hands, ten fingers.
A mobile phone Keyboard was just a copy.
Using Fitts law, I think the mobile phone keyboard ...
user16032
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Should we include a "Back to top" button for mobile websites?
When building a mobile web site that needs to be accessible — do you consider it to be best practice to include a "Back to top" anchor link in a footer menu for long pages?
I'm thinking about those ...
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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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Are there any studies which investigate the usage of Caps-Lock?
I've created a user interface which re-purposes the Caps Lock key to something more useful. During user studies some participants mentioned they did use the Caps Lock key from time to time. (Sidenote: ...
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Why would number lock be disabled by default?
There was a time that number lock was enabled by default (at least in a Windows environment). Then, after an update one day, all the sudden the Number Lock is disabled. Why the change? What is it ...
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Usability testing a Chorded Keyboard
I'm going to do user tests on a Chorded/Chording Keyboard. I would like to know, if there are any guidelines / tips for testing user-input (example sentences to input)?
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Making mega-menus accessible for keyboard users
Here's the situation. A large corporate site has a mega-menu in the primary navigation. The secondary-level page areas are available from within this dropdown (in this example the secondary levels are ...
JonW♦
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Responsive Layouts: Can they respond to *on-screen* keyboards? (i.e. Tablet / Mobile keyboards)
This question is fairly simple, though I'm not sure the technology exists yet. I'm building a responsive version of a website to be optimized for use with a tablet device. This is one challenge ...
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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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Is there any research available about the speed of working with a mouse vs. working with a trackpad?
I ask this because of a friend who never hooks up a mouse to his laptop because he claims he can work just as fast with a trackpad as with a mouse.
My personal experience is the other way around. I ...
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Why do the iPhone and iPad keyboards use different shades of gray for the keys and background?
I noticed when working with iPhone and iPad keyboards that they are quite a significantly different colour:
Is there any particular reason for this?
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How should I indicate an added row of buttons above the iPad's keyboard is scrollable?
In my iOS app, I have an extra toolbar that appears above the keyboard, using the same style of buttons as the keyboard. This toolbar is horizontally scrollable.
Currently, in all devices and ...
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Is there any research into the cost of switching between using a keyboard and a mouse?
My intuition and own experience tells me keyboard shortcut keys can be faster than using the mouse. However, some tasks like browsing the internet or a folder hierarchy truly benefit from using a ...
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Air keyboard - does it exist?
Is there some kinect-like device with an application that lets users type in the air and reads what keys they would have typed, were there a keyboard? Even a prototype or a research effort?
It ...
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What's the Best Interface for Entering Canadian Postal Codes on a Smartphone Keyboard?
Typical smartphone keyboards are modal. There is usually a basic QWERTY/Basic punctuation keyboard by default that can be switched to numeric/extended punctuation mode.
This works reasonably well ...
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Is F1-F12 the same for every keyboard/language
I have little tooltip graphics, each with a picture of a keyboard shortcut. Sometimes, the picture is a F5, a F10, etc.
I was wondering (for accessibility reasons) if everyone has a keyboard with "F" ...
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What are the benefits of non-QWERTY keyboards?
I'm stuck with QWERTY, but have been tempted to try Dvorak. Dvorak advocates claim it's faster.
Are there any studies that compare these two (main) keyboard layouts? Are there other layouts out there ...
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Is it time to reevaluate what keys keyboards should have?
I just got my Google I/O Chromebook and one of the most interesting things about the keyboard layout is that certain keys have been replaced by Google with new ones that are more relevant for an ...
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What is the best way to get users to discover and learn keyboard shortcuts
In a mouse driven desktop application, with a ribbon style interface and which has no menubar, what is the best way for users to learn about the shortcuts and accelerators which can help a user work ...
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