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Re: how to best indicate facets to screenreader users?

for

From: November Samnee
Date: Jan 25, 2012 10:21AM

You may not know what they are called, but you've definitely seen them. It
is a way to narrow down, or filter down search results. Google has them in
the left pane of a search results page, which is pretty much the main
physical location I've seen them. (See Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faceted_search)

We typically have the content in an aria landmark role for navigation, and
place them in the code after the actual search results. The testing we've
done with screen reader users show that it makes sense for our customers,
but your target customers may be different.

Also, our facets have a visible heading of "Narrow" because in usability
testing we found that even the word "filter" was confusing to users.

November Samnee


On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 10:58 AM, Jared Smith < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 9:51 AM, < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> > I can't imagine the most
> > people know that they are called "facets" unless they work in web
> > design, librarianship, or some other information-related field.
>
> I obviously work in this field and I have no idea what you're talking
> about. Do you have an example of facets?
>
> I think the fact I (and I suppose most people) don't know what they
> are indicates that labeling them "facets" probably isn't going to
> help.
>
> Jared
>