RE: rotation control button label

Interesting … wish we had resources to research what would happen in eal life with typical users.

 

Its hard to imagine someone with little understanding of the context comprehending what “Pause Slides” means. Slides in a slide show are not a running thing so you would need some additional knowledge to support comprehension. It sounds like something is sliding and you want it to temporarily stop sliding … but what is the thing that is sliding?

 

I guess if we were to augment it with a description, then maybe. I guess we could add aria-describedby pointing to a hidden node. But, I’d rather have a label that I think would be widely understood.

 

I’m usually maniacal about cutting syllables from interactive element labels. But in this case, I’m not sure that optimizing for brevity is also optimizing for usability. Understandability is particularly important for this control. And, this issue is, of course, one more reason why automatic rotation is not ideal for accessibility and should be avoided.

 

Given this is only one button and that the distinguishing verb is first, the five additional syllables are not a major concern in my mind. If we had several elements with verbose labels, the additional syllables would be a greater concern. Removing the word “automatic” would cut 3 of 7 sylables in the labels I proposed, but as I mentioned before, since slide shows do not typically advance automatically, leaving it out creates ambiguity. With “Stop” or “Start” as the first word, a frequent user would need only hear the first word to know the state and make a decision to activate or move on.

 

Other perspectives?

 

Matt King

 

From: James Nurthen <nurthen@adobe.com> 
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2019 3:01 PM
To: Matt King <a11ythinker@gmail.com>; Gunderson, Jon R <jongund@illinois.edu>; public-aria-practices@w3.org
Subject: Re: rotation control button label

 

-1 

I find that too wordy

 

Microsoft uses “Play Slides” (actually implemented as a toggle button – to be honest I prefer play/pause buttons with changing labels)

 

I suggest a regular button with

“Play Slides” and “Pause Slides”

 

James Nurthen  |  Accessibility Engineer  |  Adobe  |  p. 415.832.2734  |  c. 415.987.1918  |  nurthen@adobe.com <mailto:nurthen@adobe.com> 

 

 

 

From: Matt King <a11ythinker@gmail.com <mailto:a11ythinker@gmail.com> >
Date: Thursday, January 10, 2019 at 2:51 PM
To: "Gunderson, Jon R" <jongund@illinois.edu <mailto:jongund@illinois.edu> >, "public-aria-practices@w3.org <mailto:public-aria-practices@w3.org> " <public-aria-practices@w3.org <mailto:public-aria-practices@w3.org> >
Subject: rotation control button label
Resent-From: <public-aria-practices@w3.org <mailto:public-aria-practices@w3.org> >
Resent-Date: Thursday, January 10, 2019 at 2:50 PM

 

Jon,

 

I’m concerned that typical users don’t know what rotation means in the context of a carousel. If they make an association to a real-life carnival carousel, they might get it. But, it feels more than kind of techy.

 

So instead of a button label like “Start Carousel rotation,” I’d like to suggest we label the button:

* “Stop automatic slide show” when the carousel is rotating.
* “Start automatic slide show” when the carousel is not rotating.

 

I toyed with whether or not to include the word “automatic.” I think it is worth the extra syllables. If users are familiar with slide shows, they are usually manually controlled, like in a presentation. So, they might think stopping the show is like closing a show window or something. So, I think the word “automatic” adds significant meaning.

 

Once aria-roledescription is properly supported, users will know where the slides are and what they are, so that will help too.

 

Input from others is welcome.

 

Thanks,

Matt