We consider keyboard navigation a signature feature of our digital product. The keyboard really transforms the experience. It’s a performance boost.

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You can zip around our site with ← →

These navigate across, moving from the homepage to about and then you step through weblog posts like this. It’s a nice way to flip around.

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The ↑ ↓ keys simply scroll up and down

We reveal a graphic indicating that an ↑ or ↓ was pressed, but we do not hijack normal keyboard scroll behaviors. This way the user can scroll with their arrows as they normally would.

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For keyboard shortcut enthusiasts, it’s normal to scroll up and down webpages using ↑ ↓. By tapping into this behavior and revealing a cool animation, we indicate to our power users that Public Announcement keyboard shortcuts exist.

This is important because discovery is hard. How else will people find our important keyboard shortcuts!? We must sprinkle clues.

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Finally, our destination homepage is home to our most key keyboard shortcuts. There the ↑ ↓ arrows unlock special functionality, allowing users to step through the Top 100 links in the left rail. No need to mouse over links individually—just arrow up and down. And when you arrive on a link you’d like to read, try pressing and holding ⌘command and then ⮑return to pop a new tab. (You can see an example of this keyboard shortcut in this post’s video.)