[dev] j/n in list view should be restricted only to the items currently in view

idea
#1

I don’t know if this is actually a good idea in practice, but here it is nevertheless, I think it’s worth a shot:

  • I find the list view to be a great tool to skim through tens and hundreds of titles with lightning speed;
  • the problem I have is that using the keyboard I can not get to the story I actually want to read: when I press j, the next unopened story is opened (which can be several screens above the point I reached by skimming the titles); likewise, pressing n. This kills the work-flow - when I’m done reading the story I don’t know where I left off downwards so I can return
  • so the solution I found for the above problem is the following: the j keyboard shortcut should open stories only from the ones that are currently visible (if there are no currently opened story, it should start at the top in the viewable list); n likewise. When I get to the bottom, they should keep opening stories until the end of the feed.

I would love to know your thoughts about this.

Thanks.

1 Like
#2

That’s how the iOS app works. In fact, that should be how the web works. You hit n and it makes sure there are no visible unread stories before it starts loading the next page of stories.

#3

Well, this is not my experience so far in web. Maybe you misunderstood me…

When I’m in a list view and I have a feed with stories and I keep pressing space until the top stories disappear from view and then I press j or n, the current view gets scrolled upwards and the first (unread in the case of n) story in the feed gets expanded/opened for reading (in the case of j). I don’t want for the view to get scrolled up, I want it to stay put and j should open the first story that’s currently visible on the list (and n should open the first unread story that’s currently visible in the list).

Edit: I think you can take a look at the way Gmail does keyboard navigation in the list of emails: they have a pointer that moves when pressing the Up/Down arrows and when you want to actually open a message and read it you press Enter. Of course, the pointer should be restricted and start only from the currently viewable items.

#4

How about making a cursor with the same makings (grey background) as the cursor that appears when hovering with the mouse, but can also be controlled with the keyboard (with up/down or j/k) and when you want to open a story and read it you click on Enter (Space/Shift+Space being used to scroll up/down)?