User Interface "Enhancements"
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Hello all,
in our office one of the current topics of debate are the little accessibility / usability "enhancements" that developers add to their sites.
We are divided over what features are a positive benefit and what are just clutter (or just a replication of browser features).
If anybody would care to voice their opinions over these features I would be really interested to hear them.
The following features we are discussing are:
Text Increase / Decrease
Back buttons / links
Print this page
Close this window (if we were to dare to open popups / new windows!)
Cheers,
J
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All those examples are unecessary duplication of browser features, and therefore all are counter-productive, imo.
I think it's a bad idea to duplicate browser features on the page, because it discourages people from using their browser interface.
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I'm inclined to agree with brothercake (for once 
).
| vav wrote: |
| Text Increase / Decrease |
Possibly. Lots of people have no idea that they can change the text size with their browsers. Make it unobtrusive and make sure that it doesn't require client-side scripting (i.e. use a server-side fallback).
| vav wrote: |
| Back buttons / links |
Nope. The Back button is most likely the first UI feature a user learns in their browser.
| vav wrote: |
| Print this page |
I wouldn't. If you do, please use JavaScript to create the link, since it will require JavaScript to function. That way, users without JavaScript won't be subjected to features they cannot use anyway.
| vav wrote: |
| Close this window |
This may not be such a bad idea, actually. Very non-savvy users sometimes don't realise that a new window has been spawned, especially if they use a small screen and always keep their windows maximised.
Again, use JavaScript to write the link, for the same reasons as stated above regarding the 'Print this page' link.
Other than that, I think the answer is that 'it depends on your target audience.' If it's likely that a lot of technically non-savvy people will visit the site, there might be a reason to include some of those features. For more advanced users they will probably be more annoying than useful.
But that's just my SEK .20.
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| brothercake wrote: |
| All those examples are unecessary duplication of browser features, and therefore all are counter-productive, imo. |
Seconded. However, I think there is a benefit to adding the ability to change text size on-page, because some people don't know how to do it. Although, perhaps this is better done through a customisation page.
Replicating common functions such as "close window" and the Back button just seems silly excess crap.
.J
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Jon Gibbins :// blogs at dotjay.co.uk, works with Analog.
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All just in my opinion of course, and I'm sure some will disagree...
Text Increase / Decrease seems pointless to me. Anyone who needs to do this (and I'm sometimes one of them) will have discovered how to do it themselves through the browser. In firefox it's easier to use [Ctrl +/-] and even in IE I'm sure it's quicker for most people to go through their commonly used method than find the +/- on the screen.
For the same reason I don't see the point of 'back' links, people are far more likely to use their normal method. There are a couple of exceptions however: one is secure sites (like banks) where using the browser's 'back' button causes problems; the other is at the bottom of a long page of text, where someone is maybe expecting a bit of guidance on where to go next.
Print this page: depends on what it actually does. If it is equivalent to just printing through the browser, then again, most people know how to do that - or ought to figure it out. If it takes you to a printer-friendly page, then that's obviously different.
You should never have to use 'close this window'! But I think that probably depends a bit more on the context. If you get to the end of the window and are going to wonder what to do next, then yes, I'd use it.
Basically, whilst I know all these things are well-intentioned, it under-estimates the average user's ability to use pretty fundamental browser functions. And if you were to put all three features (not including 'close this window') on every page, then it would add considerably to the clutter.
And ironically, in my experience those sites that implement these features tend to fall down on accessibility in other ways. The text size changers, particularly, are a bit faddish: look, here's a cool widget we can put in and it makes us look like we're thinking about accessibility.
And at this point I apologise to everyone reading this who uses these features on their sites
Like I said, it's just my opinion, I like clutter-free sites.
Richard
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...or something.
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| TOOLman wrote: |
| I'm inclined to agree with brothercake (for once ) |
Oh I think we agree on most things ... except for one
Last edited by brothercake on 04 Feb 2005 12:32 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Back links are useful if you have a page with only one way in and one way out, for instance an image. I find the best way is to use
| Code: |
| <a href="??"><img src="??" title="??"></img></a> |
But don't forget to tell the user that
Too many times I have had to use the back button
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Mike Abbott
Accessible to everyone
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Hi all,
I agree with brothercake that these features are an unneccessary duplication of browser features.
But what about style switchers? i.e an option to change the stylesheet of the site to a high contrast version, yellow on black for example. I know that custom stylesheets can be applied to pages using standard browser features but these are rarely used.
Giving the option of different styles which address certain accessibility requirements while still maintaining a consistent look and feel on a site can only be a good thing IMO.
Of course sites should be designed to be 100% accessible in the first place but catering for certain requirements such as dislexia or some types of colour blindness could be elegantly achieved using a style switcher which could be saved by the user of a cookie enabled browser.
What's the consensus out there regarding such features?
Cheers
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| Quote: |
| print this page |
id be inclined to let the browser controls do this, but incorporate a print stylesheet that automagically strips all superfluous features, naviagtion etc and leaves just the page specific content when printing/previewing
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<offtopic>
| brothercake wrote: |
| Oh I think we agree on most things ... except for one |
You're right, of course. It's just that it has surfaced a few times recently so it feels like we're often at each other's throats.
And you'll have to agree that we really disagree on that one.
</offtopic>
Style switchers ... hmm ... that's a tough one. Should we provide a style switching mechanism to a browser that doesn't have one of its own, and barely supports CSS in the first place?
On the other hand, style switchers in user agents don't provide persistence; the user may have to do it for every single page he or she visits. A style switcher could take care of that. A good style switcher (and a good browser ... Opera, I'm talking to you here!) would work together with the browser's style switcher just to add persistence.
For printing, CSS should take care of that on any page from this millennium, so there should be no need for a 'printer-friendly' version.
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You'd be surprised how many people don't know how to use 'Text Increase / Decrease' even for seasoned browser users it can be useful.
However, that doesn't mean people should start with tiny text equivalent to 9pt which seems a fairly trendy practice at the moment.
In general most of the above on the list were overkill for most circumstances.
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WVYFC chose the Yorkshire Air Ambulance as the main charity to fund raise for in 2006
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I think the text increase/decrease depends on the site itself. Some sites (I guess it depends on the font) can be easily read if the text is small, whereas a site using a less-readable font might look silly if it was small. If I am at college and using IE, I'll change the font size up to suit that page, and forget to reset it - so it screws everything else up. So these sites may benefit from the option.
Bloody nora, I don't 'alf go on sometimes.
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- Jem
the jemjabella network
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| Jem wrote: |
| Bloody nora, I don't 'alf go on sometimes. |
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Mike Abbott
Accessible to everyone
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| Robert Wellock wrote: |
| You'd be surprised how many people don't know how to use 'Text Increase / Decrease' |
It's very true, it's almost twice weekly I have a work colleague sitting at my desk for something, and we're browsing the web for some information.
Where I will increase the text size, because generally they would be looking at the screen over my shoulder.
It almost always causes shock, "Wow, how did you do that, that's AMAZing etc etc"
But, they instantly forget that it can be done and how to do it, and sometimes repeat their exclamations when seeing me do it again only a few weeks later.
So... 'until browsers...' (Opera excepted), display the current text zoom setting where it can be seen at all times; I think this problem will not go away, and that it is helpful for the visitor to be informed by the website.
Personally, I'd prefer that the text size tool is replaced with information on how to change your browser's text size settings.
So to follow that, does anyone know of a page that describes instructions for doing this in all the various browsers?
I'm going off to make one for myself now anyway
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- In Windows Internet Explorer, use the View - Text Size menu.
- In Macintosh Internet Explorer and Netscape 6 and 7, use the View - Text Zoom menu.
- In Firefox and other Mozilla browsers, use the View - Increase Text Size option.
- In Safari, use the View - Make Text Bigger option.
- In Opera, use the Zoom selector.
That covers most of them
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