On the plus side, it's a large key that does not require simultaneous key presses: holding down multiple keys at the same time is not user friendly, especially for noobs.
The backspace frequently has a backwards arrow printed on it, so symbolically it feels right.
Personally I find web pages that break common shortcuts, and navigation paradigms more irritating. Google+ changes the behaviour of CTRL+PGUP/PGDOWN, some sites hijack the spacebar (normally I use for paging), some sites hijack CTRL+CLICK that I use to open links in new tabs.
I never hear people bemoaning the use of the Home key to go to the home page, and its different behaviour in text input areas. But I can appreciate some people don't like it how the controls appear to change, depending on what you are doing, it's far from obvious for some people.
I find The issue with text controls in browsers, is one of focus, thinking that you are in text area, when you aren't etc. The browsers could really help here, by making it really obvious which form element has the focus. It's doubly annoying when you are have focus on a flash component, and none of your keyboard shortcuts feel like they work. I'm a keyboard fan, but really without having some exotic setup, you are reliant upon the mouse with the mainstream OSs because of irritations like these. Which is really irritating for me when I'm trying to do simple things with just the keyboard sitting on the sofa with a computer connected to the TV.
> holding down multiple keys at the same time is not user friendly, especially for noobs.
The problem is that "noobs" generally don't care about keyboard shortcuts at all, especially if there's already a large button in the top left of the screen (or the bottom of the device) that does exactly what they want to do. The only keyboard shortcuts my father remembers, for example, are Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, and he's been using computers for 25 years.
Keyboard shortcuts need to be simple enough to be memorable, but also not too simple so that you don't press it unintentionally. A single key that is also commonly used for a different purpose doesn't seem to fit that criterion.
I"d hardly say hitting one key with your finger is a keyboard shortcut. Some noobs, hate the pointer when they first encounter it, and will avoid it if possible.
I'm not sure if it still does, but twitter used to hijack F5 so you can't reload the page. Rather annoying when it has been sitting in the background, and hasn't updated.
The backspace frequently has a backwards arrow printed on it, so symbolically it feels right.
Personally I find web pages that break common shortcuts, and navigation paradigms more irritating. Google+ changes the behaviour of CTRL+PGUP/PGDOWN, some sites hijack the spacebar (normally I use for paging), some sites hijack CTRL+CLICK that I use to open links in new tabs.
I never hear people bemoaning the use of the Home key to go to the home page, and its different behaviour in text input areas. But I can appreciate some people don't like it how the controls appear to change, depending on what you are doing, it's far from obvious for some people.
I find The issue with text controls in browsers, is one of focus, thinking that you are in text area, when you aren't etc. The browsers could really help here, by making it really obvious which form element has the focus. It's doubly annoying when you are have focus on a flash component, and none of your keyboard shortcuts feel like they work. I'm a keyboard fan, but really without having some exotic setup, you are reliant upon the mouse with the mainstream OSs because of irritations like these. Which is really irritating for me when I'm trying to do simple things with just the keyboard sitting on the sofa with a computer connected to the TV.