(KBS) Research

Background

Gathering overall information and knowledge based on what already exists within keyboard shortcuts (KBS); There is a significant body of work to support the benefits of KBS from a timesaving, accessibility, and usability perspective.

During the research I realize that if the user cannot use the shortcuts that their device is giving them, then they would need a physical keyboard in order to use keyboard shortcuts. For example if a user cannot highlight text and copy it on the touch screen of a tablet, then they would need to connect a keyboard in order to use keyboard short cuts to do their tasks. So this research considers every user with an external “physical” keyboard (if their device already does not have one) no matter what device they are using. Also, in this research, I have explored different levels of keyboard shortcuts, but my focus was on “web level keyboard shortcuts”.

Description

One thing that is always between the user and the interface is interaction. User always has to do something (user input) in order to control or interact with the interface. This could be using a touchscreen, a keyboard, or an assistive technology (alternative controls).

Sometimes modified interactions are used like gesture, speech command, and in this case keyboard shortcuts. Something that I discovered from the use cases was that they modify their device with external controls and use alternative user inputs if they need to, and that they always adapt with their available options. For example in Debra’s use case, she adapts to her existing control and technology, and combines different interactions to do the same thing (combining voice to text commands + keyboard shortcuts). User differences (states and contexts) could provide a good insight and understanding of how and where the design could be consistent, adaptable, and controllable.

Use cases

Debra

Background

Debra is a psychotherapist at a local clinic in Montreal. She has her PhD from McGill University’s department of Psychology and sometimes does lectures at McGill on her focus that is cognitive therapy. She works from 9 a.m to 5 p.m everyday from Monday to Friday, and her focus at work is assessment of patients and family consultations. She also consults other professionals at work and sometimes has private consultations after work at her home. Besides her job, on her free time she researches on language development and comprehension, and is writing a book about her studies. Debra lives in a townhouse with her two sons Mike and Andrew who go to elementary school and she drives them every morning to school before work, and picks them up after work. She is interested in gardening and gardening tools, and even though it is difficult to maintain because of her tight schedule, she has a small greenhouse on her backyard.

A Typical Day

At work, Debra leaves half an hour between every session so she could do her report. She finds it hard to hold a pen for writing and does not feel comfortable using devices with touch screen in general, so while she is with a patient, she just listens types a short version of her report on the computer after each session. This way, she can expand upon them and study them more when she has time. At home, she finds it hard to pick up a device with one hand, and use the other hand to interact with the device (a tablet or a smartphone), because of that she uses a laptop for her work, her writing, and for browsing the Internet. She uses a combination of her keyboard and a voice to text software for her writings and completion of her reports. For her book, and lectures, she mainly uses voice to text. She finds it faster, because she can concentrate more on the subject rather than typing. She needs a quiet room to do this because using a noisy room doesn’t work well with the voice to text software. She uses keyboard shortcuts to edit mistakes that the voice to text software has made. She also sometimes uses VoiceCommands for editing but for navigation through the web, she finds it easier to use her keyboard (for example: scrolling through photos on her Facebook and moving the page up and down).

Scenario

Back at home: Debra is back home with her patient notes and starts studying them.
Customized room: She has a room set up for her work. A quiet room with a computer, her voice to text headset, and a large-key keyboard.
Research: For her research online, she uses her university’s database.
Exploring KBS: She tries UIO and starts to play around with KBS.
Combining inputs: She finds that she can combine her voice to text commands with KBS.
Customization: She starts customizing her KBS by making her KBS commands into actual sentences. For example, she changes the preset shortcut for increase text size (command +) into (increase text size). This way, when KBS is on, she could just say increase text size and her voice to text application types that for her as a KBS. (Multi-key functionality would make it possible to use sentences as commands).
Assigning new keys: Later on when she adapts to her new settings, she assigns new Key inputs.
Turning KBS on/off: On KBS preferences, she assigns F5 to turn KBS on/off, and on her system preferences, she assigns a "red button" to F5.
Turning KBS off: She easily turns KBS off by pressing a red button assigned to F5. (This way she can easily switch between saying commands, and saying the text).
E-mail: She writes her email using voice to text.
Turning KBS on: She turns it back on by pressing the red button. (Ability to use alternative external inputs with the web).

Dieter

Background

Dieter is a 64-year-old mechanical engineer living in Munich, Germany. He graduated from Technical University Munich (TUM), and started working right after his graduation. Before retiring a few years ago, Dieter had been working for at a company, designing car parts for 38 years. He lives with his wife Anke, and has two daughters who are both married. Dieter spends most of his time helping Anke take care of their grandchildren Leon and Doreen, every day from Monday to Friday, while their parents are at work. He takes them to a nearby park, and enjoys playing with them. After they come back, Dieter reads them a story on his iPad. He is a fan of his city’s football club, and every weekend he uses the train to go to the stadium. After the game he enjoys spending time with his friends at a local bar, talking about the game. He spends most of his free time on the Internet, watching videos, socializing, and his banking.

A Typical Day

He has a tablet, and likes enlarged text, and by holding it far enough, he is able to do some of his work with the tablet. He does not have a problem interacting with touchscreens, but because he likes to keeps the device far, he uses a Bluetooth keyboard to do most of his interactions with the device while using the touch screen for navigation. Dieter, checks the news every morning when he wakes up. While laying down in his bed, he finds it easier to use his hands with a touchscreen, and perform simple tasks like opening the news application. On a laptop that he shares with Anke, he is more comfortable surfing the Internet rather than his iPad. Using a full-screen browser helps him a lot, and makes it easier for him to navigate and interact in the web. He finds it easier to use the keyboard arrows rather than the trackpad to navigate. He doesn’t like following the pointer.

Scenario

On a web page: Dieter is on a web page, reading about his football news.
Opens UIO: He realizes that the website has UI Options, and starts exploring.
Opens KBS: He then opens KBS and starts searching through the categories.
Only chooses navigation: He only wants to use some of the navigation options (it would be easier if he could only turn the navigation category on).
Modifies navigation: He wants to have the navigation keys close to the arrows, so he changes some of them to have them all together.
Gets notification: He gets a message that one of the keys he has chosen for a shortcut is already assigned for another shortcut (there would be an option to change, or keep the shortcut).
Saving: He does not care about the other assigned key and saves his changes.
Other users: After he is done using the computer, Anke (his wife) starts using the laptop. She is confused because some keys don’t function right.
Deactivation: She asks Dieter to come and fix it (There should be an indication that KBS is on, and also a quick key to turn it on and off).

Issues

Based on the information gathered from research to this point, these are some issues that I have came across.

User

Early on in the research, I came across a few important points that I needed to consider. These are some points that need to exist, in order for KBS to work together with the user.

User needs to know that keyboard shortcuts exist.
User needs some sort of training or a way to learn keyboard shortcuts.
User needs to have a reason to use keyboard shortcuts.
Existence of keyboard shortcuts goes hand-in-hand with the frequency of use (If KBS are not used frequently, they will be forgotten).

Levels

By looking at keyboard shortcuts in different levels (system, browser, web) provided to the user when using the device, some conflictions start to appear between the levels.

Sometimes using a single key makes sense as a shortcut in a level, but it might conflict with different levels and may function differently according to where the cursor is in the same level.
Different levels are designed to work well together, especially on computer interfaces. But they might not give the same experience to the user who is using a keyboard with a different device.
The interface could behave differently to the user interactions in different devices. This could take away from the consistency of flow and design of the user experience.

Software

It should be considered that user interface design patterns differ across software platforms. These differences might change the experience that the user would have with keyboard shortcuts.

Users could have different personal preferences and customizations.
Users could have different software/hardware platforms.
The user interface could be different in different locations. For example in some countries, the same application could look different because of the format of the text.
Generally, most “keyboard” shortcuts remain the same in different devices, but command keys might be different in different devices (⌘,Ctrl).

Differences between users do not end with devices; they themselves have different states and context that have to be considered while using the device. Considering and studying use cases, and user states and contexts we could get a better understanding of how a task like customizing keyboard shortcuts would work.

Concerns

User experience

How would the user know and learn about their options for keyboard shortcuts?
What would the user want the KBS to do?
How does the user control and customize their keyboard shortcuts?
How would the KBS fit in with the user's normal workflow or daily activities?
How are keyboard shortcuts going to work with different user disabilities?
How technically savvy is the user and what similar systems does the user already use?

System

How is KBS going to work with different keyboards (alternative user inputs)?
How is the system going to let the user know if a KBS they have chosen already exists?
Could the user customize already existing KBS? (for example, using U instead of command+Z to undo something)

Next Steps

Design

Wireframes, conceptual layouts, and low or high fidelity prototypes are going to be the 1st step after looking back and analyzing the research and data from the use cases. These are some of the things I am going to focus on:

Define the main needs and getting clear with concerns.
Concept development, and defining what the user benefits are.
Design a simple and responsive experience flow for the user.
Design a wireframe that goes well with other UI options.
Design has to be compatible and combinable with alternative controls.
The design of KBS should be consistence in look and experience across different platforms.
A way of showing the user available, and unavailable options.

Final concept

Revision and fine-tuning the design, and making an approved visual design on top of the wireframe first, and validating the design solution with the end-user is going to be the final step on the concept phase, after finalizing a concept.

Development

By maintaining a constant conversation with developers, I will work closely with them to implement the design and resolve possible issues in the design.

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