Imagine that you're writing an email to a large group of people.
You need to send roughly the same email with a few small changes.
You could write a brand new message for each person
or you could reuse most of the same message.
To do that, you could highlight the similar text, click Edit in the top menu
and then copy.
Maybe you could highlight the passage, right click and choose copy
Or, for maximum quickness, just select and command C.
That simple copy action can be successfully carried out in a number of different ways.
It's a flexible and efficient process.
Heuristic number seven of the ten usability heuristics deals with this idea.
Flexible processes can be carried out in different ways
so that people can pick whichever method fits them.
That flexibility helps people be more efficient.
If a system lets me choose my method of interaction,
I can get things done in a way that's quick and comfortable for me.
That keyboard shortcut, the handy command C is an accelerator.
An accelerator is any option or action that speeds up an interaction.
Accelerators are there for more experienced users who know a system well
and want to make routine tasks go by more quickly.
Highly usable systems are flexible enough to be efficient for experts
and friendly to newbies.
It's important not to overwhelm first-time users with too much information.
Don't try to teach them every action on the system in the very first session of use.
That's too much to learn all at once.
Accelerators are often seen in the wild in work and productivity related applications.
If you work in design, you're likely familiar with the many keyboard shortcuts
that help you work in your interface design program of choice more quickly.
If you work extensively with data analysis you're likely very familiar with macros
in Excel or Google sheets.
But accelerators can show up just about anywhere.
For most of us, Instagram isn't a work-related product,
but there's still a hidden accelerator there.
If you're a frequent user of the social media app, you may know
that you can quickly like a photo by tapping twice on a photo.
That's quicker and slightly more efficient than finding and tapping the heart icon.
When the 7th heuristic is done well, expert users won't be slowed down
by a system that's only built with basic use in mind.
New users won't be overwhelmed by an information overload of actions to learn.