I have been working with a lot of new software recently and I have noticed that the aspect that makes the strongest impression on me is the power of the keyboard shortcuts.  I know I am an outlier here but I feel a little bit of failure every time I have to reach for the mouse.  Even better than having keyboard shortcuts is having shortcuts that are consistent with an emerging set of shortcut conventions.  Here are a few that are starting to become instinctual for my fingers:

• j: down
• k: up
• x: check or mark
• /: search
• g+ <something>: go to some UI or section
• h: help for keyboard commands

I would say that Google applications like Gmail are in the lead of this trend.  If you are not already using it, I would check out Google’s search keyboard shortcuts.   Another application that does quite well is RememberTheMilk.  Rich client applications have an even higher bar for me.