Bridge 13: Nonsensical error message on Keyboard language ...

Report · Jan 14, 2023

It has always been a great feature in Bridge to run the program in one language and to use a keyboard in a second language. That way I could use the Bridge in its native language, but the program knows that I have my German keyboard hooked up.

Bridge always had (and still has in V13) two dropdown menus in preferences to set this customization. You allow users to set a mismatch between GUI and keyboard – and on the other hand you (starting with V13) complain that this is wrong.

There's nothing wrong about this mismatch – I run the full Adobe Suite that way. But you are correct with keyboard shortcuts, which might not work. This doesn't matter in Photoshop or InDesign – here you simply remap the few shortcuts that break.

The error message is also nonsensical, as users, without changing to another physical keyboard, will very likely not change the input language: Keys would no longer type what they say.

So please remove this nag-screen and do what Bridge users asked for since version one: Introduce customize keyboard shortcuts. Case closed.

Report · Jan 20, 2023

Hi Polyxo,

Your feedback is appreciated. In regards to screen alert for mismatch in languages this was meant for our new users to make them aware of implications on using different language sets, kindly select "Don't Show Again" and this screen will not pop up for you in future.

In regards to your suggestion of introducing customizable shortcuts on Bridge, we will look into it and see how soon we can introduce that feature.

Thank you for being part of community.

Report · Jan 20, 2023

Thank you @Ashmit Singh , I appreciate your answer! Good to see Adobe staff involving more in discussions, recently.

I agree that a message that informs about potential of loss of a few keyboard shortcuts could be useful.
That said, I consider everything wrong about the way the Bridge team did this:

Wrong wording
Wrong call to action
Wrong Popup type
Wrong display time and location
Repeated display (unless dismissed)

Good wording for such microcopy makes a huge difference. You may firmly assume that the mismatch of app language and keyboard layout was a deliberate choice by users in a multilingual context. Your current Popup treats the custom configuration a mistake and shows a warning icon. It advises reverting to recommended setting.

1 + 2): Info text should not be judgmental. It should state that language + keyboard don't match and that one may lose a few default keyboard mappings. That's it.

3.4.5) You picked an unsuitable Popup type. You show it at the wrong time. And you display it out of context. There is also no need to show this item several times (until dismissed).

What you should do instead:
Use a disappearing Toast message, not a Modal that requires interaction. Show it in context, right after users have used the dropdown menus to set deviating display language and keyboard-mapping. It is bad practice to wait for the next start of Bridge and have users navigate back to Preferences. Don't set this message to repeat, it is not critical. No other Adobe app shows such a message (one can successfully run far more complex and hotkey-dependent apps, like Photoshop and InDesign, with English OS and deviating keyboard-mapping).

Please let your app dialogues check by native English speakers who know Bridge well. I find various other messages, also in older versions of Bridge questionable, in terms of UX.

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It's great to hear that you consider customizable keyboard shortcuts. Please also rethink new default assignments. The hotkey for a new Content Tab is a particularly poor choice. You seemingly wanted to retain Ctrl+T for "Thumbnail only" Toggle, which is understandable. Consequently, you assigned Ctrl+Shift+T to open a new content tab.

All Bridge users have to pay a high price for this short-sighted decision:

⬝ Three keys are needlessly complex for an often-used command. This choice leaves no proper option to map further Tab-options (close active Tab, reopen last closed Tab...)

⬝ The mapping doesn't match OS-agnostic standards for Tab-handling. All popular web browsers and Windows 11 file Explorer use Ctrl+T to open a new Tab (Mac do this similarly). Using Ctrl+Shift+T (without a way to change the shortcut) disregards more than a decade of muscle memory.

⬝ Ctrl+Shift T is also a popular shortcut. It in almost all Browsers is intended to reopen the last closed Tab. In the Adobe Ecosystem Ctrl-Shift+Letter also often means re-establish a previous state (Photoshop example: Ctrl+D=Deselect, Ctrl+Shift+D= Re-establish last dropped selection (again there are Mac-equivalents)). The current hotkey choice seems not to be aware of these mapping conventions, also internal Adobe conventions.

What you should do instead:
Drop / replace the relatively unimportant "Thumbnail Only" shortcut. Make it customizable.
Use widely established keyboard mappings for Tab-handling.

Overall, this new version of Bridge in many areas feels extremely poorly informed. Dozens of small, but well established functionalities that use no UI were discarded – developers obviously weren't aware of them when they wrote V13. Now you have to spend valuable time to reverse engineer features that have grown over the years. New functionality, such as the Content Tabs gets added without proper research. Hotkeys are introduced without knowing their impact and without knowing conventions both in the Adobe Ecosystem and in Browsers….

Finally, you dress up the new release in an absurdly ugly GUI that disregards many fundamental laws of UX. Releasing such work would make your Adobe XD or Figma teams cry. All very hard to understand from an advanced users' perspective.