Spoiling myself — keyboards
A few years back, when we moved to work from home, I decided to invest in myself, and like many, at the time, I switched to the Logitech MX keyboard from my 10+ year Dell keyboard with the volume knob.
It was an excellent solution to switch between my PC and my work Macbook. However, I felt I was still missing that volume knob. In addition, I love editing pictures in Lightroom and using the mouse to adjust so many switches while editing light settings is not as fun as you can imagine. Finally, any solutions available were quite pricey such as LoupeDeck.
Recently, I stumbled upon a new Quick Keys device from XenceLabs. It is not as advanced as LoupeDeck, and I felt it has some user experience opportunities, which I will share later. However, I found it to be very promising.
Quick Keys
My first impressions were mixed. It has a lovely build and packaging. However, when I opened it, I did not know what to do with it. I thought I would plug it in, and it goes back if I do not figure out how to program Lightroom options.
The device has both USB and wireless connectivity via a USB dongle. I used a USB dongle in most cases, and it worked reliably. The setup was a breeze. However, when I turned it on, I realized that most of the default options were useless. I don’t need another CTRL, ALT and SPACE button. I did not have a clue how to use the wheel and how can I map it to the Lightroom options.
I searched for the information and could not find the answer for some time. I even posted a tweet asking Adobe for a shortcut at some point. Luckily, I could locate the Adobe forum with suitable options and program them immediately. That was a turning point for me.
XenceLabs Quick Keys saves the settings on the attached computer. However, the app does not have a userID and does not back up the settings to the cloud. Suppose you want to reuse your configuration on another computer. In that case, you need to export the settings when the device is still connected and then import them once you connect it to another computer. Of course, if you adjust the configuration, you will need to repeat the process to sync options. The configuration can get quite complex, as in my case and is a significant inconvenience. Nevertheless, all Logitech users enjoy this capability with LogiOptions and probably take it for granted. I think it can be easily improved with a software update and be a big win for XenceLabs in usability and user experience.
Youtube Music Configuration
One of my favourite configurations is the Youtube Musci player. It enables two vital to me capabilities:
- Mark tracks with Like/Dislike tags
- Use Quick Keys to control the media streamer on your computer. You can connect the remote with a USB A/C type dongle and program your options to navigate and play your music library.
One of the limitations I found here is that Quick Keys ships with a single wireless dongle, and there is no easy option to switch between 2 or more dongles available in proximity. It would be great if it had a similar switch that would allow it to change between multiple dongles. I have, for example, various computers connected around the house with different functions. It would allow me to switch and control them remotely—for example, media playback on a HiFi system, Lightroom work on the home PC, etc. But, again, Logitech already provides similar capabilities.
XenceLabs, could that be a software update allowing us to switch between talking to each other machines with a USB dongle plugged into each? Would it be possible to sell additional dongles?
Configuration Philosophy
Quick Keys has easy-to-understand features:
- It has eight physical buttons assigned to 1 of 5 sets
- Four colours identify four modes of programmable dial sequences
- Active application loads configuration when it becomes active.
It makes Quick Keys very flexible for setup. However, it quickly becomes a mess that is hard to follow without structure.
I find it helpful to focus on scenarios that carry a function around some apps—for example, controlling music such as Youtube music or editing photos with Lightroom. These scenarios could be global or local. Global settings apply to every application, such as Youtube music can play in the background. Local settings apply to a single application, such as Lightroom photo editing. So I decided to configure global settings first, mark them with the same colour for the wheel, and then define the local ones.
To conclude, I hope this is helpful if you also purchased Quick Keys and looking for the best practices. Please share your learnings in the comments below or your questions. I hope this will help your research if you have not bought it yet.
