I’m angry today.
As web apps become increasingly complex, developers need more shortcuts to map various actions. Now we have countless shortcuts for any site.
Take GitHub’s shortcuts as an example; they have a few.
But there’s a limit, and I’m here to draw that line.
Your website shouldn’t hijack the default browser shortcuts.
Don’t assume your feature is more important than years of muscle memory. I want to get things done, but I feel lost when I use a shortcut, and your website does something else instead or tries to replace the default behavior of the browser.
Have you tried doing CMD/Ctrl + F on Paper (Dropbox)? You’ll get a surprise.
What about Developer Tools in Chrome?
Switching to another profile with Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + M? Ah no, sorry. You’ll see a nice mobile view of the current website instead.
I’m not against progress; I accept that web apps like Google Sheets are so complex that they need our poor right-click menus for their things, but please leave our shortcuts alone. You can always choose from the long list of free shortcuts that are still available.
Any potential speed benefit we might get in your app with that shortcut is offset by the annoyance of being unable to do what we always do. Thanks, but no thanks.