Re: 4.13.1 Bread crumb navigation - use of right angle brackets

On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 03:47:01PM +0200, Willem-Siebe Spoelstra wrote:
> 4) What I also don't understand is why no <a> is being used on the current
> page list item, see this comment:
> https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=22739#c5

> Vriendelijke groet,
>
>Willem-Siebe Spoelstra


An a without an href is... what, exactly? Unfocusable in most browsers
and meaningless. Why would you try to trick users into thinking that
there's a link there, when nothing happens when they click it?? And
if it *did* have an href, it would have to go to the current page,
which is not recommended by the likes of Nielsen because it's still
confusing to users to have links that don't do anything.

Anchors point to destinations. The last item of a breadcrumb is not
pointing to any new destination; it lists the current, present
page. It's not a link, and should not be one, or promise to take
someone somewhere and then break that.

In general any links that don't go anywhere are considered poor
usability. 


>3) The arrows should not be content but CSS in my opinion.

Re arrows: if you've been to computer-help forums, you've seen how
people tend to list steps.
Sometimes arrows:
http://superuser.com/questions/153248/gimp-change-one-colour-to-another
Second answer uses a unicode arrow (which in my copy of Windows is a box),
third and later answers use either > or ->.
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/t_Kkimn9vFc

Others use commas: 
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/how-do-i-install-or-uninstall-internet-explorer-9
third point under How To Install Internet Explorer.

And many use ordered lists:
http://www.liewcf.com/how-to-uninstall-ie9-windows-7-vista-7056/

Lists seem to come when they have to tell you a command, arrows seem
to come where people can simply click choices and travel.

To suggest nothing at all in the content seems wrong; especially if
there is nothing like colour or wide spacing between destinations, a
delimiter separates well, especially if destinations are multi-word.
This should not rely on CSS:
"You can also go to Tools (the wrench icon) Options Under the Hood Clear Browsing Data."

cheers,
Mallory

Received on Thursday, 17 October 2013 06:59:35 UTC