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Re: Expander links

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From: Simius Puer
Date: Apr 16, 2010 5:24AM

A minor aside...

I wonder how many people who use expand and collapse solutions actually
consider the usability (accessibility aside for one moment) of these
solutions.

I've watched a great many users struggle with what first appears to be very
simple interfaces. For the web savvy a + symbol is pretty well know,
*but*do you know your audience, and are they web savvy too?

There is an awful lot of focus on "how to implement this accessibly" without
ever asking the questions "do we really need to do this in the first place"
and "will our users be able to use it easily?".

I am *not* debating the fact that sometimes this is a good approach,
*nor*saying everyone ignores these vital questions...but I'd bet money
that large
proportion do, and an even bigger proportion never carry out proper user
testing.

Developers are good at checking cross-browser/platform compatibility and
debating the best methods for accessibility, but all too often the stuff
that really matter gets overlooked as it involves stepping outside the
development sphere.

In the example provided by Pratik (very elegant and well implemented btw!) I
would argue that the expander box is actually a waste of time. If this is
an important error message then why wouldn't I want the full details? 2
issues I see here that are very common:

- the "details" button is not clear

...this could easily be missed by many non-disabled users who are not
overly web-savvy, or at least take them a while to spot. This would be very
easy to fix though with a little attention to styling and careful
consideration of the wording (especially as there may be more than one of
these on the page).

- why am I being made to click to get access to information I need that
is pertinent to this page?

...what happened to the basic usability rule of not making the user click
more times than is absolutely necessary? Accepted, this is expanding an
area rather than loading a new page, but the principle is the same.

...I am only using the demo provided by Pratik as an example and I mean
absolutely no disrespect as I know it isn't a 'finished product' only a demo
(plus I quite like it) of a solution.

Sometimes it's useful to look at these things from a different point of
view. Whilst its easy to deliver 'technically clever' websites, they should
always be tested in the real world.