The Square keyboard usability is very poor, it requires the use of a pointing device for pretty much every part of the application. That's OK for the POS section, where users have chosen a touch interface, however it's a serious productivity issue in other parts of the application.
The biggest issues for me are:
- Forms can't be submitted by pressing the return key, the user must use a pointing device on a "Save" button
- Tab navigation is effectively useless, a user can't navigate from one field to the next easily and again is required to use a pointing device, which is linked to the above issue (e.g. a user can't tab to the save button, then click it by pressing the return key)
- Dates are presented in the peculiar US format of month/day/year. That is seriously annoying for the vast majority of the world that doesn't use that format. There should be a setting to format dates however the user wishes. Similarly, times are only presented in 12 hour (am/pm) format, there is no setting for 24 hour format
- Date pickers do not allow manual entry of dates, which is linked to the keyboard navigation issue. When entering data, it's much simpler to enter a value, tab to the next field, enter a value, etc. then when finished just press enter to do the default operation (typically "save" or "update")
These usability issues also affect accessibility for any user who prefers keyboard navigation of applications rather than using a pointing device like a mouse, trackpad or joystick. It is much faster and convenient (and hence productive) for a user to keep their hands on the keyboard rather than having to click various buttons, icons, links, etc. on the screen. For various categories of disabled users, tab navigation is essential.
Do others have similar issues?
