Using the MailBug™ App
Navigating between screens — Shortcuts Make It Easy
The key to making something seem easy-to-use is to make actions and tasks seem intuitive, with multiple ways of performing those actions. Navigating through MailBug’s screens is a good example. Getting to the screen or feature you want feels really easy and intuitive because there are multiple ways to do it. MailBug accomplishes this by using individual keyboard keys as shortcuts, and by the use of on-screen help menus. In this way, novice users without much experience with a touchpad or a mouse can still use keyboard keys to perform all the common actions. Of course, using an external mouse (or the Chromebook’s built-in touchpad) will also work.
MailBug uses the number keys 1 through 9 and 0 on the keyboard as “function keys” — essentially acting as shortcuts that allow a user to quickly go to any of the app’s major screens. These shortcut keys are likely to be used often. The following figure illustrates these and several other shortcut keys.
These shortcut keys work in most screens (except while in the Compose screen where the user may be typing a message that may actually contain these numbers). For example, going to the Contacts List screen requires simply pressing the 2 key. Don’t worry that you’ll forget or have to memorize them — these shortcuts are all shown in the banner at the top of most screens. The banner looks like this:
The Help menu
We often hear the question from novice users — “What do I do now?” Learning how to use email can be a daunting task for new users. A good way to address that question is to present a list of all the actions possible from a given screen. MailBug attempts to do that by having a on-screen Help menu for each of its primary screens. With such a menu there’s less opportunity for the user to “get lost” and wonder what to do next. This menu is accessible with the press of just a single button — the Ctrl key — conveniently located on the keyboard’s lower left corner. So the user doesn’t have to remember commands and doesn’t have to reach for an instruction manual to find them.
Below is a typical Help menu, the example shown is for the Inbox (Received Messages) screen.
The menu’s left side shows a list of the available actions, while the right shows a list of the shortcuts to go to other screens. You can use the keyboard’s arrow keys to move the command selection (indicated by the darker shading) to the command or action you want to take and then pressing the Enter key to take that action.
Associated with each command is its shortcut key – a letter on the keyboard chosen to be as intuitive as possible for that command. You can simply press that shortcut key to take that action or go to that screen. You can use these shortcut keys even when the menu is not displayed.
The built-in touchpad or an external mouse can also be used to click on the desired action. Clearly there are multiple ways to choose and take your selected action. Now you’ll never have to wonder what to do next.
The right panel of the help menu lists the primary screens and their associated shortcut keys.
Tip: When in doubt about what to do next, just tap the Ctrl key to see a menu of available commands
Magnify the Message
The text on MailBug’s screens is already displayed in relatively large type (font size). But if your vision is not as good as it once was, or you just find it easier or preferable to read larger print, then MailBug can help make messages and help menus easier to read with its “zooming” feature. While viewing a message, you can “zoom in” to magnify the text in the message. Adjust the level of magnification by using the “Zoom in” and “Zoom out” keys. These are the bracket keys right above the Enter key on the keyboard. Then, when you wish to return the zoom level to the original size, use the “Zoom reset” key. These three keys are conveniently located directly above the Enter key. These three keys are conveniently located directly above the Enter key, as shown in the figure.
When reading an email, the text can be enlarged (zoomed) to make it easier to read, and then un-zoomed again at will. You can change the text size at any time using one of seven zoom levels. Of course making the text larger means that the amount of text shown on a given screen is less, but since you can zoom in and zoom out at will, you can adjust the view as you are reading. The figure shows examples of a few text sizes.
