Designer | Accessibility & Usability Features - We'd Love Your Feedback!

[A11yKyle]

Hello Fellow Alteryxians! 

The Accessibility Team here at Alteryx has recently developed some new features that will allow assistive technology users as well as anyone else, to navigate and manipulate elements of Designer using only the keyboard. We are very excited about these new features and those further on the horizon, but we need feedback! 

Who we're primarily looking for:

- Users who regularly use keyboard commands to navigate.

- Users of assistive technology

- Users that want/need to build workflows quickly

The above are definitely not hard requirements, if you've got the time and the inclination, we'd love to hear what you think! 

If you're interested in providing feedback on keyboard navigation features or assistive technology features either now or in the future please contact me here or at accessibility@alteryx.com 

Any feedback is appreciated! 

Thank you! 

[Horn]

Will engage with the team internally to see if there's any feedback relevant.

[csmith11]

I came to the Community to Post a recommendation for Keyboard Navigation. I found this post first so I will post my recommendation here. 

Recommendation:

If it doesn't already exist, Alteryx should add a hotkey to 'Set Focus and Zoom' to a currently selected tool. 

Use Case:

With Larger workflows, an error or a message may pop up in the result pane. When a message is clicked often the related tool is selected but it is not always visually identified. A quick hotkey to zoom and set visual focus on the tool would be helpful in understanding where a tool is located relative to the workflow as a whole.

[iCFO]

I regularly use keyboard shortcuts, macro combos and UI macros via external controllers and keyboard / mouse configuration software to simplify my work. I would be happy to share how I work around the current shortcut limitations and how I use some of my macros and button assignments.

It would be super useful to improve the visual cues for what is selected in a workflow. When zoomed out of a large workflow it can become impossible to see which connection line or tool is "selected" because they the small black box and thin line darkening does not stand out. A much better system would be a thicker bright color connection line or bright color filled in box behind a tool to show what is selected. Preferably the selection color would be controlled as a user setting so that people could choose what stands out best to their eyes in their workflow color schemes. The only way I can even find which tool is throwing an error or warning in a large workflow is to zoom in to an incorrect spot before selecting it, so that it jumps to the tool at a reasonable zoom level. Otherwise there is no apparent visual indication of the selected tool among the other hundreds of tools.

[binuacs]

looking forward to seeing the new features!!!

[gaurav_aga]

Hi

Please find attached Solution for Practice2.

Thanks & regards

Gaurav aga

[Kishan25896]

Eagerly want to know about it.

[Cadistra]

I am very new at using Designer, but I am a huge user of keyboard shortcuts. I was actually a bit surprised to see that Ctrl + W didn't close the workflow file I was using, and when I hunted around to see if there was a place to set keyboard shortcuts, I wasn't able to find any. 

I have over a decade of art program experience (Photoshop, etc) where hotkeys are king - they shave time off of small things that can really build up. 

I'm not nearly as experienced but happy to offer any assistance I can! 

[Shifty]

Hey @A11yKyle - this is a great initiative.  Is there anywhere we can see a list of the changes implemented on the back of this exercise?

[IraWatt]

Very interested in hearing more about this. I have to ask if more colouring/theme options in designer are being considered for development in this program?