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From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Fri, Feb 22 2019 9:41AM
Subject: In page links and the back button - expected behavior
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Hey folks

I have a conundrum I wantd y'all's thought on.
Some of our pages have in-page links. The links are actually
implemented with JavaScript so when user clicks the link the focus
gets moved to the corresponding section of the page, but the URL of
the page is not updated.

This works fine when user clicks the link, but if the user expects to
use the back button to jump to the top of the page this will not work,
the user will navigate back to the last page the user was looking at.

The question is, is this a problem? Do users typically use the back
button to navigate from an inpage target back to the top of the page.
I know personally I never do it, but I also realize I am but one
person, and also kind of weird.
We're going to do some usability testing with this, but I am curious
what people's expectations and usage patterns are and if you have some
input.
Thanks
-Birkir


--
Work hard. Have fun. Make history.

From: Steve Green
Date: Fri, Feb 22 2019 10:13AM
Subject: Re: In page links and the back button - expected behavior
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My expectation is that the Back button would take me back to the top of the page, because that's what happens on most websites.

I find that I have two distinct behaviours for in-page navigation. Much of the time I use a mouse, in which case I might click the Back button after operating an in-page link. Other times I use keyboard navigation, in which case I would always use the Home key to return to the top. I use keyboard navigation a lot on long pages, where it is much faster to hit Page Down than it is to scroll.

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd



-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > On Behalf Of Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Sent: 22 February 2019 16:42
To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Subject: [WebAIM] In page links and the back button - expected behavior

Hey folks

I have a conundrum I wantd y'all's thought on.
Some of our pages have in-page links. The links are actually implemented with JavaScript so when user clicks the link the focus gets moved to the corresponding section of the page, but the URL of the page is not updated.

This works fine when user clicks the link, but if the user expects to use the back button to jump to the top of the page this will not work, the user will navigate back to the last page the user was looking at.

The question is, is this a problem? Do users typically use the back button to navigate from an inpage target back to the top of the page.
I know personally I never do it, but I also realize I am but one person, and also kind of weird.
We're going to do some usability testing with this, but I am curious what people's expectations and usage patterns are and if you have some input.
Thanks
-Birkir


--
Work hard. Have fun. Make history.

From: glen walker
Date: Fri, Feb 22 2019 11:04AM
Subject: Re: In page links and the back button - expected behavior
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I have a similar behavior to Steve, but will use the keyboard more often (I
rarely use the mouse). With in-page links, I tab to them and select them
and always expect the back feature to take me back. But like Birkir, I'm
just one person and that's just the way I operate.

Notice I said the back feature and not the back button. I typically go
back by using alt+leftarrow (and forward with alt+rightarrow). If I'm deep
into following links and want to go back, say 5 or 6 levels, I have not
found a way with the keyboard to do that easily. I know a right click
(with the mouse) on the back button will show the history and I can select
the link that is 5 or 6 levels back and go directly there, but I haven't
found a way to get my keyboard focus to the back button so that I can use
shift+f10 to get the menu then arrow down 5 levels to go back.

Glen