Currently we use the ACCESSKEY attribute to create shortcut hotkeys on the “open next” and related buttons visible when you are viewing feeds. The problem is that the keys used to select an ACCESSKEY vary by platform and browser. This means that we have to sniff for different browsers and platforms to show you the correct key combinations.

Now that Firefox will be switching in 2.0 from Alt + key to Shift + Alt + key, ACCESSKEY is officially dead to me.

We’re switching to javascript shortcut keys that will be the same on all platforms. Some of the current keys we’re using like “z” will cause shortcut collisions on some platforms, so the keys will have to change.

Here’s what I’m thinking:
Open Next: CTRL + ,
Mark Read: CTRL + .
Mark Read and Open Next: CTRL + /
Add Feed: CTRL + \

Let me know if you think these combinations are comfortable and if they cause any collisions for you.

Unfortunately, the javascript shortcut keys won’t work in Opera (if anyone knows of a way let me know), though any Opera user that was actually pressing Shift + Esc then the accesskey probably died of fatal carpal tunnel long ago.

This is a fantastic piece of animation that combines architecture, pseudo-info graphs, and John Coltrane.

Screen shots:

Via information aesthetics.

As the quasi-PR person for Newshutch, I keep track of what people are saying about us. I do this by looking at referrer traffic, blog/forum comments, and with Feedgit.

One interesting post I recently saw on Feedgit was posted July 6, 2006 on a Spanish language blog. Mario Núñez, the author, posted what looks like a Spanish guide to using Newshutch. Poorly translated by me, the post title is almost Vader-esque: “An excellent way to begin to know the power of RSS“.

Someday we’d like to translate Newshutch into other languages, but until we have the time and budget, keeping things simple is a fair substitute. Before we launched, I was dreading writing the site copy. The way around the pain was to write as little as I could get away with, while still communicating what Newshutch is and why you’ll like using it. The combination of words and pictures turned out pretty well I think.

An added bonus is that it’s somewhat easier for non-English speakers to use Newshutch. When we do actual translations someday, we’ll have fewer words and interface elements to deal with. I love it when writer’s block pays off.

Doug and I were interviewed by Josh Owens and Chris Saylor of the Web 2.0 Show. They typically have high caliber guests, so it was a real thrill to be on their show.

A little “behind the scenes” trivia: In the original interview there was something of an awkward pause at about 17:05 after I go on an anti social software feature creep mini-rant, but Josh and Chris thankfully edited the awkward pause out. What I really meant to say was that instead of making tagging, tag clouds, friend groups, and all that stuff central to the Newshutch experience, we want to use the principles of social software in subtle ways. For example we could use categories as “tags” and “flagged” entries in interesting ways without explicitly making Newshutch a “social software” application.

Other highlights include Doug getting into the nitty gritty technical side of Newshutch, and me waxing ecstatic about how great it is to not have a boss. Many thanks to Josh and Chris. They were a lot of fun to talk to and excellent hosts.

Enjoy!

Web 2.0 Show Newshutch podcast and show notes.

No user interface design mistake bothers me more than when too much information is forced into a tiny non-resizable area. As usual, Microsoft is the worst offender.

Microsoft Money won’t let you see enough categories:

Internet Explorer’s settings pane forces you to scroll right:

Add hardware wizard makes you scroll a huge vendor list in a tiny space:

This is so frustrating because it smacks of lazy programming. Is it really that hard to make all windows resizable? Any time you force users to remember things instead of showing them what they are looking for it’s a UI failure.

Version 1 of Newshutch had this problem because too many important interface options were at the bottom of a huge feed list. If you checked feeds to delete, you would forget what you had checked by the time you reached the “delete” button. Since then we’ve added scrollable panes and we use fixed positioning (which doesn’t work in IE) for the “manage” options. I’m not saying Newshutch is perfect, but we aren’t worth billions and our add hardware wizard hasn’t sucked since 1995.

If you want to see some real doozies, check out the Interface hall of shame.

In lieu of our new server being up and you all enjoying a better, stronger, faster Newshutch (sorry about the delay), how about a screen shot of user interface features I’ve been working on?

Can you spot the updates? I’ll give one away because I don’t want anybody to freak out: Independently scrolling panes. Yes it’s an option and not a default, and yes, it’s done with style sheets and javascript instead of icky frames.

I’m not sure when these will roll out, our first priority is to get back to “fast” with all previous features re-enabled.