Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Shortcut bar should be consistent with the quickbar, allowing easy customization of positions and contents

What ?

Currently, the shortcut bar is quite obtuse, relying on a tiny "three dots" button to customize. Reordering shortcuts is not where the icons actually are, and they move around when new icons appear, as it retains compactness.
Instead, the shortcut bar should acts more like the quickbar, allowing for click on empty spot to select a tool, and middle click on a full spot to remove the tool.
The shortcut bar should allow holes, so it is possible to group certain tools together on their own row.
The tool selection window could look like a normal item selection window, or one with names. This could also let mod makers place their tools on different groups and subgroups.
If tool names are required, this opens a design idea for a unified "view toggle" that can allow any item selector to either show a grid, or icon with names.
Naturally, the normal tools should appear when they appear in game (ALT from the start, bots stuff when unlocked).

Why ?

This is good for the game, as it raises consistency between UI elements, allowing for better discovery.
Many players miss the "three dots", and even fewer players actually know about the ability to drag the shortcuts in that menu to reorder them.

Second this, ordering the shortcut vertically is fine but as soon as we want to do it horizontally, it become a very frustrating little puzzle. The possibility to move them freely on every box by holding the left click will be great.