Designer-friendly keyboard shortcuts?

[AlanGilbertson]

One of the more disconcerting aspects of the Stager UI/UX for a designer used to working in Ps, Ai, Id, etc., is the keyboard shortcuts that don't work as expected.

In particular, Alt (Option) drag is the universal quick way to copy an object. It works that way in Dimension. For no apparent reason, Stager switches to a (redundant) rotate mode, forcing a clumsy Copy/Paste as Instance or Duplicate followed by drag to position.

We have "V" for the basic move tool, matching the design apps, but then there's "E" for Rotate and "R" for Scale, both of which defy logic. "W" selects the Magic Wand tool in Ai, Ps, Id and Dn, but not Stager, where it is "A."

Before things become too entrenched, can the team reconsider the kbsc's globally and bring them back in line with the rest of the Creative Cloud apps? As a designer who works primarily with the major CC apps, I find the current set gets in my way constantly because I have to shift gears from both my usual apps and what I am used to from Dimension. Or add an option to select a "designer-friendly" set?

[JMathews]

Hi Alan!  I'll raise this topic up with our centralized design teams.  It's a tough balance because we are trying to find a middle ground between matching some Adobe shortcuts and some 3D industry shortcuts.

Alt + Left / Middle / Right mouse button is one of the most standard 3D navigation schemes for camera control in almost all 3D software.  So having that as default means if you're working with Stager + any other 3D tool your basic navigation will be more consistent.  You can go into the preferences and choose to disable "alt for camera navigation" option which will instead bring back your alt for duplication behavior.

WER is also fairly standard across most 3D apps for being move, rotate, scale.  The logic used in 3D apps is that you are using these tools so constnatly that it's similar to 1-2-3 in how fast you access and switch between it.  Our hope is that our universal select and transform tool (shortcut V) will solve 90% of needs and does share a shortcut with other Adobe apps at least.

Multiple sets of shortcuts is possible ("Adobe" vs "3D") perhaps.

[AlanGilbertson]

Hi Jeanette,

Yes, I figured that was the case, although in exploring Blender I didn't find much concurrence with Stager or Dimension. Even some of the function names are different. (They were changed to protect Innocent Functions involved, no doubt.)

My unashamedly designer-centric idea is that since Stager/Dimension/Felix is primarily a designer tool (yep, there I go again!) then it ought to fit with designer muscle-memory. The February issue of CreativePro Magazine leads with "The Roots of Efficiency," an article I wrote for designers but that is built on general principles any UI/UX person should be aware of. Those fundamentals are why I bring up keyboard shortcuts. I'm emailing you a PDF in case you don't already have a subscription to the mag. Steve Krug doesn't really get into this subject in "Don't Make Me Think," but the principles in that book are directly relevant.

Your rationale for picking these keyboard shortcuts is exactly why there should be a kbsc set for people who work in Adobe's flagship products (ahem!) day in and day out. And as for poor V, well! How do you think it feels to be the only Adobe shortcut, surrounded by tousled 3D kbscs in their fancy Air Jordans and hoodies, speaking some weird dialect of C++ and pidgin Python?

We already have to deal with a gaggle of uncoordinated ksbcs among the CC apps. It's long past time to get the UX act fully together company-wide, but in the meantime the product teams should at least not add to the confusion.

A selectable preference set is the way to go, particularly if the legacy Allegorithmic/3D apps user base starts to use Stager in any numbers. Keybindings are are long-solved problem, so it shouldn't be too hard to code. To my way of thinking, of course, Stager should have kept the Dimension set. InDesign offers five (!) choices of kbsc: Default, Illustrator, Photoshop, Pagemaker, and Quark Xpress, plus the ability to create and save custom sets. Stager can at least give us two.