Ask HN: How important are keyboard shortcuts for new SaaS?

5 points by louismalingrey 2 years ago | 13 comments

Hey guys, I see many new start ups showing the fact that their software is full of keyboard shortcuts. It seems to be a huge argument pushing conversion as it's high on the landing page. I am wondering how important this is for you when you see a new product ? does it make you want to try ?

codingdave 2 years ago |

If you are asking whether or not the marketing of such things improves my chances of using a product? No, not in the slightest. It is completely irrelevant to me during that initial marketing/sales phase.

However, if I choose to use a product because it solves a problem I have for a fair price, and they add shortcuts to improve the quality of life while using it, that is likely to retain me as a user longer when new competitors inevitably arise.

It is also a good thing for accessibility of the app, so shortcuts are a good idea in general.

They just are not a good marketing bullet point. (IMO)

rocketpastsix 2 years ago | |

I would put this up there with Dark Mode. I want your product to work, I could care less about dark mode, light mode, keyboard shortcuts or anything else.

fardo 2 years ago |

Usually shortcuts are good for lock-in because besides being useful, they get you used to certain workflows. For example, excel has a useful shortcut where "CTRL + ;" inputs today's date, and "CTRL + SHIFT + ;" inputs the current time, which you can do in the same cell to create a date-time instantly with almost a single motion.

It was a source of endless frustration when once I was extremely used to this shortcut, I later switched to google sheets for a different project, and the shortcut didn't work the same. Google still supported both individually as they had copied excel, but the way they work on sheets is before inputting either the date or time, it would delete whatever existing value was stored in the current cell, meaning you could no longer instantly input both a date and a time to make datetimes, you instead needed two columns where before one would do.

Shortcuts increase the frequency of these kinds of friction points with your power users when they move elsewhere.

dtnewman 2 years ago |

N of 1, but I have never looked at a product and said “wow, this has keyboard shortcuts, let me try it out!”

And unless you have users who login to your product every day (e.g. Twitter or replit), I doubt it matters for retention either.

One exception might be products where speed and ease of use are vitality important, such as figma.

al_borland 2 years ago |

It depends on how often I’ll be using something and what kind of application it is.

I assume Gmail has keyboard shortcuts, but I never used them and never cared. However, when using Miro, I very quickly looked up and learned some basic keyboard shortcuts, because the constant tool switching is hell without them. With the shortcuts I can fly. I see other people at work use Miro without the shortcuts and it’s like watching someone wade through molasses, and they constantly talk about how much they hate it.

I think it can be make or break, but it depends on the app and the type of user you expect.

ativzzz 2 years ago |

Keyboard shortcuts are generally useful for technical power users - think people who learn keyboard shortcuts in Excel vs those that use Excel a lot but don't. So in other words, a pretty small minority of users. Is your target audience that small minority of users? If not, then keyboard shortcuts aren't that useful. They are also difficult to integrate into every feature as you grow larger, especially for non standard shortcuts (if you're building a web app)

simantel 2 years ago |

I think it's mostly companies cargo culting Linear and Superhuman, whose value propositions are their superior UX for power users. I think that can work for productivity tools like them, but not sure if it makes sense for like an ecommerce tool, for instance.

gardenhedge 2 years ago |

It sounds like keyboard shortcuts are not essential to your product/service. I think you need to talk to your customers and ask them what they want. If you don't have customers, focus on getting them over building keyboard shortcuts.

stainlu 2 years ago |

keyboard -> platform you choose -> customer segment you aim at -> problem you try to solve

keyboard shortcuts will be way more essential for db saas rather than a payment/training saas for labor workers

satvikpendem 2 years ago |

Stop worrying about all these extraneous features. Solve a problem, get customers, grow to a consistent revenue, then add such features.

noashavit 2 years ago |

If your users are developers than it is a nice added bonus, but it most likely won't be the reason you win or lose deals. I hope this helps!

andrei_says_ 2 years ago |

I use Basecamp and utilize the shortcuts every few seconds.

vunderba 2 years ago |

You need to be more specific. Keyboard shortcuts aren't usually something people think about on websites.

But if you're releasing a desktop application, then you're better off setting up the infrastructure to support keyboard shortcuts now rather than later down the line.

And for the love of God, make them customizable (even as simple as a JSON file) otherwise you're always going to have frustration from users using unusual keyboard, setups, other countries, different IMEs etc.

You also have to think about your target demograph and the expected workflows around your product. Is your product designed to be used a few times a week, or is it something that needs to constantly be used and there's dozens of mouse clicks associated with every action?