I empathize with people who ask for closer UX to Workflowy’s “Starred Pages” and its “Ctrl + ;” shortcut. I would put this problem the following way.
We can think of two close usage patterns resulting in jump to another bookmark:
- Search for a bookmark among all bookmarks
- Switch between recently used bookmarks
The first usage pattern is covered by the “Ctrl+O” shortcut perfectly well.
The second one is not directly addressed. Currently, to perform switching, one is required to do the search, which is a more complex task than necessary for simple switching.
In Windows we have a shortcut “Alt + Tab” (switching between active apps), in Workflowy - “Ctrl + ;”. These shortcuts are very well designed and suitable specifically for switching. You press the shortcut repeatedly to iterate through recently used items. Additionally, you can use arrows for navigation through longer lists of recently used items. This is mentally and mechanically easier and faster than pressing “Ctrl+O”, then recalling part of a name of the desired bookmark, then typing it in, and then choosing the bookmark from the list of all matches.
In my opinion, browser history can be an effective solution when a user works with two bookmarks only. Also, it is not synchronized between devices.
As a way to address the switching usage pattern, I would suggest showing the list of recently used bookmarks sorted by last usage time right after pressing Ctrl+O. Repeated presses of Ctrl+O and arrows can be used for navigating through such a list. In this scenario, the user is not expected to type anything into the search bar.