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Thread: Decorative image or not in a search listing?
Number of posts in this thread: 8 (In chronological order)
From: Joe Allen-Black
Date: Wed, Apr 18 2018 11:56AM
Subject: Decorative image or not in a search listing?
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I'm having an internal debate on how to best guide the setup of alt text on
a listing page. I would love the group's opinions.
The page I am looking at is a listing of news articles. Each article has a
headline, digest text, and then a lead image from the article. The
headline and digest give proper information about what the article is
about.
I'm wondering about the need to include alt text with the image or go with
an alt=""
My thought to keep alt text is that it is content, so strong alt text would
give more information to visitor.
My thought for not including it is that the image is decorative in a way.
It doesn't aid in understanding (even if the alt text was written well). In
a way, it almost seems like more clutter for a person on a screenreader to
get image information, then similar information the headline and digest.
I've seen different approaches on different sites. Would love more feedback.
Thanks!
From: glen walker
Date: Wed, Apr 18 2018 12:03PM
Subject: Re: Decorative image or not in a search listing?
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I agree with your thought on not including it. If the image does not add
anything other than visual candy, it can be helpful to have a null alt so
that it doesn't clutter up the images that do have meaning. If I navigate
with the G key, or bring up the list of images with Ctrl+Ins+G, I wouldn't
want the "eye candy" images in that list (speaking as a personal
preference). I know I can bring up a list of links or headings to find the
articles. I don't need another way to navigate to them.
These thoughts are only relative to your specific example. There are cases
where I recommend having alt text on eye candy because it can be helpful or
enjoyable.
Glen
On Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 11:56 AM, Joe Allen-Black < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
wrote:
> I'm having an internal debate on how to best guide the setup of alt text on
> a listing page. I would love the group's opinions.
>
> The page I am looking at is a listing of news articles. Each article has a
> headline, digest text, and then a lead image from the article. The
> headline and digest give proper information about what the article is
> about.
>
> I'm wondering about the need to include alt text with the image or go with
> an alt=""
>
> My thought to keep alt text is that it is content, so strong alt text would
> give more information to visitor.
>
> My thought for not including it is that the image is decorative in a way.
> It doesn't aid in understanding (even if the alt text was written well). In
> a way, it almost seems like more clutter for a person on a screenreader to
> get image information, then similar information the headline and digest.
>
> I've seen different approaches on different sites. Would love more
> feedback.
>
> Thanks!
> > > > >
From: Jeremy Echols
Date: Wed, Apr 18 2018 12:20PM
Subject: Re: Decorative image or not in a search listing?
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I agree with Glen unless the images are links. If so, and there's no other link text, they would have to have something in the alt attribute. Though the better fix would be to make the <a> element wrap around both the image and the headline so that the image is once again just decorative.
From: glen walker
Date: Wed, Apr 18 2018 12:27PM
Subject: Re: Decorative image or not in a search listing?
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Good catch, Jeremy. I was assuming the images were not a link so I didn't
mention it.
And as a tangent, hopefully the site only has one link to each story,
instead of two (or more) that all point to the same location. I'm guessing
the headline is the only link. (Is the headline a heading, a la <h2>?)
On Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 12:20 PM, Jeremy Echols < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> I agree with Glen unless the images are links. If so, and there's no
> other link text, they would have to have something in the alt attribute.
> Though the better fix would be to make the <a> element wrap around both the
> image and the headline so that the image is once again just decorative.
>
>
From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Wed, Apr 18 2018 12:45PM
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL]Decorative image or not in a search listing?
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TO me, it seems like the image is being shown as part of the listing to help users decide if that is the story they want to click on. If that is the case, then the image seems like it would only be decorative if the image in the original story is decorative.
I would think it would be better just to use whatever alt text was provided for that image in the original story.
From: glen walker
Date: Wed, Apr 18 2018 1:10PM
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL]Decorative image or not in a search listing?
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If the alt text in the original story ends up being the same text as the
headline, then you'd have duplicate information to skip over, which could
be annoying.
It's certainly personal preference but I normally choose to check the
headline or digest text to determine whether to read an article, and not an
image.
On Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 12:45 PM, Tim Harshbarger <
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> TO me, it seems like the image is being shown as part of the listing to
> help users decide if that is the story they want to click on. If that is
> the case, then the image seems like it would only be decorative if the
> image in the original story is decorative.
>
> I would think it would be better just to use whatever alt text was
> provided for that image in the original story.
>
>
From: Isabel Holdsworth
Date: Thu, Apr 19 2018 2:47AM
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL]Decorative image or not in a search listing?
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I'm with Glen on this one. The image sounds like it's decorative, in
which case I would expect to be able to glean enough info from the
headline and supporting text to decide whether I want to read the fill
story or not.
On 18/04/2018, glen walker < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> If the alt text in the original story ends up being the same text as the
> headline, then you'd have duplicate information to skip over, which could
> be annoying.
>
> It's certainly personal preference but I normally choose to check the
> headline or digest text to determine whether to read an article, and not an
> image.
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 12:45 PM, Tim Harshbarger <
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
>> TO me, it seems like the image is being shown as part of the listing to
>> help users decide if that is the story they want to click on. If that is
>> the case, then the image seems like it would only be decorative if the
>> image in the original story is decorative.
>>
>> I would think it would be better just to use whatever alt text was
>> provided for that image in the original story.
>>
>>
From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Thu, Apr 19 2018 7:36AM
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL]Decorative image or not in a searchlisting?
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I am probably misunderstanding things--but I want to mention something that always intrigues me and sometimes concerns me.
Just to me, it sounds like the thought process for considering the image as being decorative is based on the idea that most people would just use the title or description to decide which article to click on. To me, it seems like the thought process should be less about what most people do and focus instead on what the content authors intended.
I know that can be problematic because most of us end up having to try to make things accessible without any direct contact with content authors--and also focusing on how most people use the UI might just be a way to compensate for not having access to information about the author's intent. So, it is just my assumption that it seems like the content authors included the title, description and image as a way to help users figure out which article to click. If that is the case, I would think the image is only decorative if it were decorative in the original article.
Again I might be misunderstanding what others are saying or I might be in error.--whatever the case is, this ends up being something I think about frequently.