GUIs should be fully keyboard-driven • Hacker News Board

Re: GUIs should be fully keyboard-driven

#521

Post by Xirdus » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 2:57 AM UTC

ckardaris wrote: post #440

Xirdus wrote: post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have my opinion on aesthetics of additional ways of repeating information already available by color coding. But to each their own. Other than that, is enabling/disabling any of the aforementioned features ever a question of aesthetics?

For example, opting to not enable high-contrast mode is a question of aesthetics. Arguably reading text would become easier for the user, but they prefer to sacrifice a little of the readability in favor of looks.

I am a little confused about your response. Do you disagree with me that accessibility features often reduce usability, or do you agree with me and just feel like nitpicking? I'm all for nitpicking, but I'd rather keep it separate from the real debate.

Re: GUIs should be fully keyboard-driven

#522

Post by mghackerlady » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 2:57 AM UTC

Telaneo wrote: post #118

toast0 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> showing the relevant keyboard shortcuts in the UI can be overwhelming Underlining the accelerator key is subtle and shouldn't be overwelming. Keyboard navigation unaware users probably won't even notice.

This works poorly if you intend to localise your application. Great if you don't though.

Even then, English has become the defacto language of computing. Some amount of knowledge of its basic vocab is expected, and many computer related words in other languages are english loanwords.

Re: GUIs should be fully keyboard-driven

#523

Post by Xirdus » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 3:08 AM UTC

madeofpalk wrote: post #444

Xirdus wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> accessibility is just usability. all it is is making sure your product is as usable by as many people as possible. Not always. There are things that increase usability for fully abled people but decrease it for disabled people. Color-coding is a common one. Another is using smaller font size to make more info visible at once, or advanced touch gestures that can be accidentally triggered by shaky hands. Then there a…

> Another is using smaller font size to make more info visible at once This doesn't sound very usable to me.

You might be the kind of person who does benefit from accessibility features such as larger font size. On the other hand, I'm not; I can read 10pt font on 100 DPI display just fine, without glasses. I'd rather have an extra column in table view visible without scrolling than larger letters, but for you the tradeoff might be different. That's why it's accessibility and not usability. Usability would be if the bigger font didn't push anything off screen, then of course it's better to make it bigger.

Re: GUIs should be fully keyboard-driven

#524

Post by gjvc » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 5:51 AM UTC

jnpnj wrote: post #488

gjvc wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

once again, I get to cite the IBM AS/400 CallPath system demonstrated here https://youtu.be/5pY6Xxptp9A?t=2083 which almost brought a tear to at least one viewer's eye

Pretty cool video. I would love to know more about the internal design of the as400 platform and how people thought and designed user interfaces. I can't shake the feeling that these interfaces are so lean they're satisfying. Also, I feel that a lot of interfaces today are wasting resources.

watch the whole video from the beginning! :-)