Hi Lucas, I think a number of folks would find this useful.
Another variant, if there is time & interest, is to highlight those elements that have no mnemonic and/or are otherwise not reachable via keyboard traversal. This use would be more for developers/QA folks, to help highlight where keyboard shortcuts are needed but don't exist. Regards, Peter Korn Accessibility Architect, Sun Microsystems, Inc. > Hi folks, > > I'm exposing here a GSoC project idea not listed in the 2007 Ideas > Pool and I would appreciate any comments/suggestion from you, > GNOME Accessibility team, especially concerning the idea relevance to > GNOME project. > > > Here is the idea draft I sent to gtk+dev and usability lists. > Thank you in advance for taking the time to read it. > > The idea was motivated by my experience as user/developer and by the > following GNOME HIG quote: > "A well-designed keyboard user interface plays a key role when you are > designing applications." > > Here we go.. > > IDEA: > Improve the visual indication of keyboard shortcuts in UI. > > SHORTCUTS IN GTK: > The shortcuts support in GTK+ is powerful and very well designed, > although visual indications of available shortcuts are provided just > by Labels and AccelLables. It allows software developers to design a > very nice keyboard support to their applications and most of the users > I know understand well access keys indicated on those Labels and > AccelLabels. > > POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS: > GTK+ might allow developers to expose available mnemonics near > to it's widgets even when there is no (Accel)Label related to it, e.g. > a Canvas area. When user holds the first key of an accelerator key > combination, e.g. CONTROL or ALT, then the available shortcuts with > that key might pops-up near to it's widgets. > It will allow users to easily identify and jump fast across > application UI areas without having to press several TABs or > SHIFT+TABs to get there (Have you ever wondered "where is the focus > now?"). > This approach should work very well even on 'keyboard centric' > applications like Text Editors. On this applications, users can't > navigate properly using TABs. > We might go even further allowing a second level of shortcuts to > widget's children. Just to make it clear, the user could press ALT+T > to activate the 'Toolbar' and then all active ToolItems might show > it's mnemonic so user could press one and get it activated. > > There are some mock-ups to illustrate this idea applied to Nautilus > [1], Gedit [2] and GtkFileChooser [3]. > > BENEFITS: > * "Novice and advanced users alike will be able accomplish tasks > quickly and easily" [GNOME HIG] > * Helping users to identify available mnemonics in order to navigate > easily across the user interface. > * Improving the applications accessibility. > * Software developers could improve it's applications keyboard > support to fits even better into GNOME HIG. > > I'm looking forward to receiving your feedback. > Best regards, > Lucas > > [1] Nautilus: > http://picasaweb.google.com/lmveloso/GnomeSoC2007Idea/photo#5040744879812560818 > [2] Gedit: > http://picasaweb.google.com/lmveloso/GnomeSoC2007Idea/photo#5040744879812560834 > [3] GtkFileChooser: > http://picasaweb.google.com/lmveloso/GnomeSoC2007Idea/photo#5040744879812560850 > > > 2007/3/11, Steve Frécinaux <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > >>> IDEA: >>> Improve the visual indication of keyboard shortcuts in UI. >>> >> The idea looks pretty cool indeed, and reminds me what konqueror does >> for webpages (it adds "random" shortcuts to the fist hyperlinks of a >> page) >> >> What's harder is to play nice with the shorcuts that are already >> defined, like mnemonics and regular shortcuts (Shouldn't ctrl+n appear >> directly near the "new" icon from the toolbar ?). >> > > Really nice you have pointed it out. > > Yes, it should. In fact, already defined shortcuts should work without > any (or with minimal) code modifications. So, when users holds > Control key, all those already defined shortcuts have to pops-up. This > must be the project primary goal. > > The second goal is about allowing a complementary keyboard approach: > software developers might be able to design a menu-like shortcuts to > some desired UI components (as shown by those mock-ups). By > 'menu-like' here I mean keyboard sequences as ALT+F Q, ALT+F P, ALT+E > X. Toolbars could be accessed in both ways if the software developer > add this complementary shortcut approach. > > >> Good luck in completing the spec :-) >> > > Thank you! > > ------- > This email recommends Free and Open Source Software (R) > _______________________________________________ > Gnome-accessibility-devel mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-accessibility-devel > _______________________________________________ Gnome-accessibility-devel mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-accessibility-devel
