[IxDA Discuss] Accessibility Guidelines for Windows Software GUI

[Juan Lanus]

Hi Andreas,

I made a quick search, to find out if the MS GUI book is online.
There are pages like
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwue/html/ch05a.asp
that I imagine you have already seen.

Some opinions, of mine.

1- Consider sticking to existing Windows shortcuts. There is a list
somewhere in your PC. This will encourage your users to try to
remember them. MS did not stick to their own standards so you might
see incoherences.

2- I was toying with the idea of dymamically showing in a corner of
the screen, or in the status bar, the list of available shortcuts in
each state of a program. As an option. The guys of the Eclipse IDE
http://www.eclipse.org implemented it in a recent release but I don't
know if it was useful for the users or not. The Eclipse has lots of
keyboard shortcuts. I think this idea was first said by Alan Cooper,
in his first book "About Face" where he wrote about using the keyboard
as a resource for power users.

3- I design so the shortcuts are almost always "Enter" and "Escape",
the first for to dirll down and the other for to back up. This can
lead to powerful interaction, not at all trivial, if the design if the
interface is done accordingly.
For example "editor" class programs like Word, Excel and the like, do
not qualify for simple keyboard interaction.
It's because they have so many options on display, all active. This
means that the user has to remember too many codes, not feasible.

4- Just for the record, find out how many of your relatives at home or
work, know that they can switch applicatons using Alt-Tab. My take is
that I had to teach almost anybody about it, then they fint it useful.
This might give you an idea of how almost everybody uses the mouse,
disregarding the fact that it's much slower.
If you find out that your users are not used to keyboard shortcuts,
and the success of your program depends on it, then consider providing
special education.

Forgive me if what I wrote was too obvious for you.
Good luck!
--
Juan Lanus
TECNOSOL
Argentina