(sorta) User Testing Bloglines New HotKeys

Oct 13, 2005 - 8:29 pm 0 by
Filed Under Usability

I saw it appear in Bloglines before I later discovered Danny Sullivan had covered it in Bloglines Announces Enhancements To Service. When I went to Bloglines, as I do about 29 times a day to check my feeds, I saw this:

So. Without bothering to memorize it, and not having a photogenic memory, plus in my normal rush, not really paying attention to the part where it states they will put the key at the bottom of the feed display (bad Kimmy!), I continued to look for interesting news and blog items.

This is when I realized I couldn't find the key or remember what it had said. I assumed they (the nice people at Bloglines) would put the short cut keys somewhere handy. The first page I checked was my SearchBrains feed. There were 69 results, which meant I had to scroll or page down a few times to get to the bottom where that danged hot key reminder thingy was stuck. Like I'm going to scroll....

A better illustration is what happened when I tested the new hotkey system to view Rand's Seomoz.org feed.

Here, you can see that if you got to this point, at the end of a long page of results, there's not a whole heck of a lot of need for "J', which lets you read the next article. But, as long as you're here, you can use the little "K'" to shoot back up or "S" to get to your next subscribed feed. Nice, for those who don't or can't use a mouse. I couldn't get the "A" to do anything, which totally violates the "Don't Make Me Think or Worse, Make Me Feel Like An Idiot" rule.

I like it. I just wish the key to the keys was placed at the top and the bottom, for those of us who have no memory or aren't inclined to pay attention in class.

Kim's note: This blog entry was dutifully supplied as per Barry's request since he took off for the day. It's not about search engines or SEO/SEM, since my "beat" is usually the usability stuff. For the 99.5 % of you that came here looking for search engine stuff meet Joe Searcher.

What are your thoughts on SEO?

Is that that new football league where the has beens go? I'm all for more sports. Anything that reduces the percentage of home improvement shows on air is great in my book.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Follow

Search Video Recaps

 
Google Core Update Rumbling, Manual Actions FAQs, Core Web Vitals Updates, AI, Bing, Ads & More - YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Publishing Content In Bulk Is Not Spam

Mar 19, 2024 - 7:41 am
Bing Ads

Now Important Google Ads PMax To Microsoft Advertising PMax - Fully

Mar 19, 2024 - 7:31 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Canonicalizing From WWW to Non-WWW Won't Impact Your Search Rankings

Mar 19, 2024 - 7:21 am
Google News

Google Changes: Liz Reid New Head Of Search, Pandu Nayak Steps Down As Search Quality & Rankings Lead

Mar 19, 2024 - 7:11 am
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 18, 2024

Mar 18, 2024 - 4:00 pm
Google Updates

Google Urges Patience As The March 2024 Core Update Continues To Rollout

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:51 am
Previous Story: Rotating YPN and Adsense Bad Idea?