computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, ...

, spatial navigation is the ability to navigate between focusable elements, such as

hyperlink In computing, a hyperlink, or simply a link, is a digital reference to data that the user can follow or be guided by clicking or tapping. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text w ...

s and form controls, within a structured document or

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

according to the spatial location. This method is widely used in

application software Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a ...

computer game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedback ...

s. In the past

Web browsers A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...

have used

tabbing navigation In computing, tabbing navigation is the ability to navigate between focusable elements (such as hyperlinks and form controls) within a structured document or user interface (such as HTML) with the tab key of a computer keyboard. Usually, pressing ...

to change the focus within an interface, by pressing the

tab key The tab key (abbreviation of tabulator key or tabular key) on a keyboard is used to advance the cursor to the next tab stop. History The word ''tab'' derives from the word ''tabulate'', which means "to arrange data in a tabular, or table, fo ...

of a

computer keyboard A computer keyboard is a peripheral input device modeled after the typewriter keyboard which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches. Replacing early punched cards and paper tape technolog ...

to focus on the next element (or to focus on the previous one). The order is based on that in the source document. For HTML without any style, this method usually works as the spatial location of the element is in the same order of the source document. However, with the introduction of style via presentational attributes or style sheets such as

CSS Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone technolo ...

, this type of navigation is being used less often. Spatial navigation uses the

arrow keys Arrow keys or cursor movement keys are buttons on a computer keyboard that are either programmed or designated to move the cursor in a specified direction. The term "cursor movement key" is distinct from "arrow key" in that the former term may ...

(with one or more

modifier key In computing, a modifier key is a special key (or combination) on a computer keyboard that temporarily modifies the normal action of another key when pressed together. By themselves, modifier keys usually do nothing; that is, pressing any of the , ...

held) to navigate on the "2D plane" of the interface. For example, pressing the "up" arrow key will focus on the closest focusable element on the top (relative to the current element). In many cases, this could save many key presses. This accessibility feature is available in a number of applications, e.g. Vivaldi web browser. For Vivaldi users, this allows a faster way to "jump" to different areas in long web pages or articles without manually scrolling and scanning with their eyes. Some examples, as noted above, include the key to jump to the next input field, but also the key with arrow keys (, , , ) to jump to various links and text headers.

Doug Turner (Mozilla) Doug Turner is the ex-Director of Engineering at Mozilla Corporation and long-time contributor to Mozilla. The Mozilla Foundation hired Turner in December 2004 to work full-time on mobile projects such as Minimo and Mozilla Joey. He was the Fou ...

, the

Minimo Minimo (from "Mini Mozilla") was a project to create a version of the Mozilla web browser for small devices like personal digital assistants and mobile phones. The project aimed to make it easier for developers to embed parts of Mozilla into sy ...

lead developer, has created a couple of special

Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current an ...

builds with this feature. Eventually, this may build as a default part of Firefox. Nightly builds of

WebKit WebKit is a browser engine developed by Apple and primarily used in its Safari web browser, as well as on the iOS and iPadOS version of any web browser. WebKit is also used by the BlackBerry Browser, PlayStation consoles beginning from the ...

(the layout engine used by

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancest ...

Safari A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an impor ...

and

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, ...

, among others) now WebKit changeset 55543 http://trac.webkit.org/changeset/55543 have support for spatial navigation. In games such navigation is represented by (for example) camera-relative movement.

References

External links

Use Opera without a MouseSpatial Navigation in Mozillaand for Google Chrome
{{web browsers User interface techniques

See also

References

External links