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Re: Preferrred breadcrumb implementation?

for

From: Jared Smith
Date: Jun 1, 2006 10:00AM

Austin, Darrel wrote:
> - Does hearing 'greater than' actually help contexualize the beadcrumbs
> for the user?

I would say yes. But only because breadcrumbs tend to be done like this
and this has become a bit of a de facto standard. Unfortunately, there
isn't (yet) markup for identifying navigation and sub-navigation.

> - Does leaving it as a OL/UL, like the rest of the navigation on the
> site confuse more than help?

I would either use the > and linear test OR a list. I think using both
might be a little overboard. And definitely an ordered list as a hierarchy
is being presented. If your main navigation is a list, I might argue
against using another list for breadcrumbs, especially if you have a
linearized sub-navigation.

> - Would labelling them as breadcrumbs also help, and, if so, is the
> term 'breadcrumb navigation' ideal?

Perhaps, but most people won't understand 'breadcrumb navigation'. I'd
probably go with 'You are here:' or something more informative.

On our upcoming site design, we went with:
You are here: Home > Articles > Introduction to Web Accessibility

'You are here:' is visually hidden, but read by screen readers. We did not
go with a list, as our informal testing indicated that the > better
indicated the breadcrumb hierarchy to users than an ordered list. It also
renders more accurately when styles are disabled:

You are here:
1. Home
2. Articles
3. Introduction to Web Accessibility

... does not really present the semantic structure of the breadcrumbs,
where Articles is within or subordinate to (or less than!) Home.

So much of accessibility is understanding the issues, choosing from
multiple 'good' options, and doing what you think is best. It's certainly
subject to opinion, but this is what my opinion on this would be.

Jared