It's the little things
Feb. 10th, 2010 12:48![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
viktor_haagEvery now and then, some boffin takes a decent UI and does something to it that seems like a good idea, and then just plants their own head straight into the table.
Viz.
Amazon used to be:
- CMD+L, type 'amazon.ca', wait a few seconds
- TAB
- type someSearchCriteria
- ENTER, wait a second
- behold the glory
Now, some web-wizard has changed the way the form selection order on their homepage works. Their search bar's drop-down list of "departments" now responds to the TAB key. And, what's worse, the list doesn't wrap.
The effect? Now a keyboard user cannot get to the search bar to type in their search criteria, without having to hit TAB n times first, where n equals the number of their departments plus one.
Oh, and you can't search for anything from keyboard only, without having to search in the last department on the list when what nearly all keyboard users are going to want to do is search "all departments" because these folks have long since discovered that they can stick in a keyword in their search criteria to indicate the department they want.
Gah.
Any UI that forces me to move my hand to the mouse when I don't want to gets a very dim scowl from yours truly.
Listen, chuckles: please don't build ultra-sexy UI controls into your website that do not respond in the way that is industry standard. Drop-down selection lists in web browsers work more or less the same way: TAB key can focus them, but another TAB will move the focus on to the next control! While the list has the focus, ENTER will open the list, and keyboard letters will seek to list items that match!
Your sexy new control is not "hot new innovation". It sticks latency and frustration between you and your customers. Which might just reduce their desire to use your site. And might just slow them down enough to decide that, no thanks, the complete works of William Shakespeare are not the impulse buy they must make today.
All this could have been very neatly solved if they would just have placed the focus-cycling order of the text input field for their search criteria, before their sexy new drop down list. Did they even bother to field test their UI changes before unleashing it on the web-i-verse? Probably not.
Viz.
Amazon used to be:
- CMD+L, type 'amazon.ca', wait a few seconds
- TAB
- type someSearchCriteria
- ENTER, wait a second
- behold the glory
Now, some web-wizard has changed the way the form selection order on their homepage works. Their search bar's drop-down list of "departments" now responds to the TAB key. And, what's worse, the list doesn't wrap.
The effect? Now a keyboard user cannot get to the search bar to type in their search criteria, without having to hit TAB n times first, where n equals the number of their departments plus one.
Oh, and you can't search for anything from keyboard only, without having to search in the last department on the list when what nearly all keyboard users are going to want to do is search "all departments" because these folks have long since discovered that they can stick in a keyword in their search criteria to indicate the department they want.
Gah.
Any UI that forces me to move my hand to the mouse when I don't want to gets a very dim scowl from yours truly.
Listen, chuckles: please don't build ultra-sexy UI controls into your website that do not respond in the way that is industry standard. Drop-down selection lists in web browsers work more or less the same way: TAB key can focus them, but another TAB will move the focus on to the next control! While the list has the focus, ENTER will open the list, and keyboard letters will seek to list items that match!
Your sexy new control is not "hot new innovation". It sticks latency and frustration between you and your customers. Which might just reduce their desire to use your site. And might just slow them down enough to decide that, no thanks, the complete works of William Shakespeare are not the impulse buy they must make today.
All this could have been very neatly solved if they would just have placed the focus-cycling order of the text input field for their search criteria, before their sexy new drop down list. Did they even bother to field test their UI changes before unleashing it on the web-i-verse? Probably not.
