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AaronB
AaronB
New Member
October 8, 2026

The order of modes in the quick toggle UI should match the toolbar

I discovered by accident the new ⌥+TAB keyboard shortcut to quick toggle between modes (not sure what that’s officially called?). This seems super useful, except for whatever reason the order the modes are displayed in the quick toggle UI, is completely different from the order they’re displayed in the keyboard. 

In the toolbar they are ordered: Draw, Design, Motion, Dev Mode. Motion is relatively new, but I’d assume this is the order nearly everybody is used to.

After hitting ⌥+TAB the quick toggle UI appears and the modes this time are ordered: Design, Draw, Dev Mode, Motion.

This feels unnecessarily confusing to me. I rely heavily on the spatial positions of the active mode icon in the toolbar to see which mode I’m in. The icons themselves are relatively small and visually similar, so I feel like their position is a much stronger visual cue than the icon itself. So when the spatial consistency is suddenly broken, I have to stop and consciously read the labels and think about it for a moment, rather than relying on the positions I’ve already internalized. To me, that added cognitive effort almost defeats the purpose of a quick switcher feature. 

Anyone else agree? 
 

 

1 reply

AaronB
AaronBAuthor
New Member
October 9, 2026

Ok actually... after playing with it a little bit more, I’m realizing the quick toggle UI dynamically reorders the modes based on what you’ve used most recently. So it’s almost like the ⌥+TAB shortcut is a “go back to previous mode” shortcut, with an added mode switcher.

While I can see the logic behind the different order now, it still doesn’t feels like the right interaction pattern, and I almost find it more confusing. There are only 4 modes at the moment, and they already have an established position in the toolbar, so breaking that spatial consistency makes it hard to rely on muscle memory and quick recognition. 

I also think the “go back to previous mode” aspect of the shortcut is nice and probably even more useful than a quick switcher, but that functionality can still work without rearranging the visual order of the modes.

So for example if I’m in Design Mode, and was most recently in Dev Mode, I could hit ⌥+TAB and I’d see quick toggle UI with Dev Mode selected, and then I would just immediately release the Option key to switch to Dev Mode. 
 


Then again, once I’m in Dev Mode if I want to go back to Design Mode. I’d do the same thing and see the UI with Design Mode selected. So I could immediately release the shortcut to quickly “go back’, OR use the tabs/arrow keys/mouse to select a different mode with a familiar and predictable interface.
 

 

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