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Re: Focus should always be set somewhere, right?

for

From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Feb 1, 2016 1:44PM

On 01/02/2016 20:09, Robert Fentress wrote:
> Aaron, your argument that the user is likely to remember the previous item
> makes sense. However, on Windows 8 at least, if you are in "Details" view
> in File Explorer, deleting an item causes the next item in the list to
> receive focus, not the previous.

This pattern makes sense in these situations, I'd say - it would allow
quick "triage" of lists of items.

> But that is only one example of where the best place to set focus is not
> totally clear.

Indeed I think this is all very dependent on the specific case being
reviewed, and starts crossing over into usability.

> For instance, suppose you have a discussion forum and you
> are on the index page where all of the different topics are listed. These
> topics are grouped as follows: "Pinned Discussions", "Discussions". Beside
> each topic name in "Discussions" is a button that says "Pin". Clicking the
> "Pin" button causes the page to dynamically change, such that the topic is
> moved to the "Pinned Discussions" group. Where should focus go in that
> instance? Should it stay on the "Pin" button (which now says "Unpin"), or
> should it go to the next or previous topic in the "Discussions" list?

You may even want to move focus back right to the start of the list of
topics, though personally I'd probably tend to think focus should stay
on the control (now changed to "Unpin").

> Should events like these be accompanied by a polite live region
> announcement, or would that be too verbose?

In this case, yes - some confirmation message that the topic has now
been pinned and moved to the top of the topics list.

> Right now, it all seems very ad hoc. Anybody know of any standards beyond
> the patterns described in the ARIA Authoring Practices document (
> https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices-1.1/), which is still in draft, I
> think, and not prescriptive?

As it's - in my mind at least - so dependent on each specific case and
what the current goal of the user is, I'd be wary of a single standard
trying to authoritively address all scenarios, beyond using vague "make
sure focus moves to the most sensible spot..." advice.

> Or are we approaching things in the wrong way to try to closely hew to the
> paradigm of the desktop? The web frees us from those constraints in a way,
> for good or ill. There may be new paradigms that are more usable that what
> is currently on tap that are just waiting to be discovered. We all have to
> adapt to new ways of doing things as technology enables new possibilities,
> but how do you make sure everybody is able to come along for the ride.
> Chicken? Egg?

Some desktop patterns may be clunky, but they'll be what most users are
probably familiar with / had to get used to. Not saying they should be
followed without question, but they can certainly provide some data
points when you're trying to find the solution that's right for your
very individual situation.

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

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