Access keys - Forgotten Power Strokes
Words by Daniel Aleksandersen on 2006-04-03
Some Web designers have forgot and others never heard about access keys. But they are something that will really improve your sites usability. Especially if its a community based site or a site where users submit content.
Access keys are keyboard shortcuts which can be pointed at any element on a site. On Mac's it's usually Ctrl + key and on Windows it's Alt + key to focus the element.
You can add accesskey="letter" to most elements and links on a Web page.
Here is the three most commonly used and should be considered as a sort of standard for access keys:
- F for Find
Use F to focus on your sites search field. NOT the submit button, but the input field. - H for Home
Use H to link people back to your sites homepage. - S for Submit
Use S to submit form data, from a comment field for instance .
It could also help visitors to have other links and elements accessible by the keyboard as well. A good tip is to underline one letter of a word in your menu and use that letter as an access key. The underlining will indicate to the user there's an access key for that object.
For instance: Home - Download - Community
And try to avoid using Z, X, C and V. They're default keyboard shortcuts (from another command key) and your users might be unsure or worse, use the wrong command key.
7 comments
Very true!
I haven't implemented this yet on my own website, due to other priorities, but I will.
Also, I did in fact wonder why you didn't use C for Community, and just before I read your reasons, I thought "could be due to c for copy", and lo and behold
A wise move.
Magnus at 2006-04-03 @912.
Whilst it may be handy on a community website of a large scale, it's otherwise rather useless for everyday, personal websites and other such places.
The reason being, they are forgotten, that is. If people don't know about the feature, they aren't going to use it. Neither will they start using it if it requires learning a new trick, and for perhaps only one of the sites they visit.
Access Keys, like I said, might work on a large community site that functions as a social connector of sort, like for example, myspace. But even then, the usage would be limited and it would be otherwise be annoying to remember at length. (Please remember we mac users are not used to using ctrl in relation with hotkeys, this makes it even worse for us. The other thing is that webbrowsers use a lot of different ctrl+ functions, well beyond the stanard copycutpaste scenario. The latter is of course purely windows related, but does knock out a sizable chunck of most of the users on a webpage.)
So, the actual feasibility of widespread implementation of such a feature is actually not very appealing. (When it requires changes to most webbrowsers in existence.)
That's my two cents on the matter.
Papilionoidea at 2006-04-04 @077.
Good points.
The average user doesn't even know about such hotkeys. Some aren't even aware of the Copy-Paste shortcuts.
However, this is an addon feature, in my beliefs. Limiting the web site for such navigation is pointless and cause stress for the visitor.
Nonetheless, it's good to have on websites that are visited relatively often.
Not sure if this is helpful to disabled people, but it could be?
Magnus at 2006-04-05 @826.
Although I agree in general that access keys are a Good Thing, the keys suggested in this article are plain dumb — don't try them.
Alt+F is suggested, which will conflict with most browsers' "File" menu. Alt+H will conflict with "Help".
The UK Government standard access keys are quite good, as they don't conflict with much common software (although be aware that there may still be some products that they will conflict with!). They are used on most UK Government websites, but many non-UK, non-government websites have also adopted them.
S - Skip navigation
1 - Home page
2 - What's new
3 - Site map
4 - Search
5 - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
6 - Help
7 - Complaints procedure
8 - Terms and conditions
9 - Feedback form
0 - Access key details
Toby Inkster at 2006-04-17 @356.
Interesting topic… I'm working in this industry myself and I don't agree about this in 100%, but I added your page to my bookmarks and hope to see more interesting articles in the future…
Dave at 2006-08-24 @478.
i agree with toby you really have to watch you dont overide hotkeys from your browser when doing this
Umbrella website design at 2007-07-19 @234.
You cannot override browser hot keys! They are access with another key than the accesskey key.
Daniel Aleksandersen at 2007-07-19 @257.
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