Keyboard navigation is often missing on web sites. Its absence is especially frustrating on sites like Flickr where you simply want to move from photo to photo with a minimal amount of fuss. By providing a very simple way to add keyboard navigation I’m hoping to make it a little bit more popular.
There’s a rel attribute in (X)HTML that is used to define the relations the document has to other documents. With this mechanism we can, for example, easily state that a page is to the right of another page, in any of these ways:
<link rel="right" href="smurfs.html" />
<a rel="right" href="smurfs.html">Smurfs</a>This information can then be accessed from JavaScript when arrow keys are pressed.
My photo gallery has a simple and elegant implementation of this idea that you’re free to use under the very liberal WTFPL. Here’s an example photo page – try going there and pressing the arrow keys on your keyboard.