RE: Distractions - always negative?

Hello Everyone,

Good question. I can't answer immediate because I didn't really know what the word distraction means.

I had a look in the dictionary and it have two definitions:

1: a thing that prevents someone from concentrating on something else.

2: extreme agitation of the mind.

With that in mind here are my first thoughts:

1: distractions are always bad. I don't want my mind agitated. Distractions are about stealing focus. They _prevent_ a user from focusing on something and completing a task etc. 

2: There are a great many messages which need to be communicated to users. Sometimes they may be communicated in a way which distracts the user.

3: limiting distractions is about making recommendation for how to effectively communicate messages in non distracting non blocking ways

4: the messages mentioned in the other emails are either TIMELY (eg like the delete button) or there for COMPLIANCE (cookie notice)

5: Therefore perhaps we need to discuss methods of communicating important or timely messages without distracting the user.

For example (based on what works for me)

- rather than leave form verification to the end of a big form. Break it down into smaller chunks (many smaller forms) and do the validation inline. Eg I know each form Inout is valid before i move on to the next element. Create forms which only display a submit button when the form is valid and are effective in communicating invalid data rather than a model block or warning step at the end. 

- create a cookie warning which on the second page defaults to acceptance (this removing the distraction side effect quickly). This is how the BBC cookie warning works.

So in summery. I think distractions are bad, they are the side effect of ineffective messaging between the page the user.

It's a bit like using bold. If you use bold a small amount it is effective.

If you use bold all the time it becomes useless.

Effectively many pages turn into a an attention seeking shouting match as every page element tries to be important.

Does that make any sense at all? Just my opinion *blush*

Hope that helps,

Jamie + Lion
________________________________________
From: Anthony Doran [t.doran@texthelp.com]
Sent: 01 May 2015 14:36
To: EA Draffan
Cc: Neil Milliken; public-cognitive-a11y-tf@w3.org
Subject: Re: Distractions - always negative?

Hi All,

I've been kicking this around some more...I think there's more here - a broader question. How should a user's attention be drawn to something effectively? There are two sides to distraction - what you should *not* do, and what you *should* do in it's place. It is often a requirement/need to draw attention. This is not always commercially driven. Cookie notifications, legal requirements, location restrictions, copyright notices etc. We cannot be abstinence only here, it's just not realistic IMO.

 With emphasis in text we know that the most effective way is to bold the text as italics, underline and all caps all have issues. Bold does too, but less so.

 Which brings back the question - how does someone effectively draw attention, with minimal impact on those with Cognitive challenges? At the end of it all we need to give developers recommendations they can follow.

  I am thinking along the lines of front loading - all necessary messages at the start of a process. "You are about to start filling in a form XY for ZY, would you like live help, or extra time or XXXXXXX" rather than an overlay after 5 minutes. Might be a good starting point for discussion.

T



On 1 May 2015 at 09:47, Anthony Doran <t.doran@texthelp.com<mailto:t.doran@texthelp.com>> wrote:
Ok - this is interesting stuff ;)

How should a positive distraction work? - say if you do have a help pop up, or you do have a paywall or something else that *must* be there. What is the best possible user experience? Should we prefer one method over another, or ????

There is ordering - distraction in the middle of something is worse than a notification as a part of starting something - say a form or similar. There is the form of the distraction - and how easy it is to close/banish forever/pay or whatever, for starters.

Thanks, T

On 1 May 2015 at 09:12, EA Draffan <ead@ecs.soton.ac.uk<mailto:ead@ecs.soton.ac.uk>> wrote:
Absolutely especially if you are about to select something that might delete all your work if you are not alerted to that fact by something that makes you pause!

Best wishes
E.A.

Mrs E.A. Draffan
WAIS, ECS , University of Southampton
Mobile +44 (0)7976 289103<tel:%2B44%20%280%297976%20289103>
http://access.ecs.soton.ac.uk<http://access.ecs.soton.ac.uk/>
UK AAATE rep http://www.aaate.net/
http://www.emptech.info<http://www.emptech.info/>

From: Neil Milliken [mailto:Neil.Milliken@bbc.co.uk<mailto:Neil.Milliken@bbc.co.uk>]
Sent: 30 April 2015 14:50
To: Anthony Doran; public-cognitive-a11y-tf@w3.org<mailto:public-cognitive-a11y-tf@w3.org>
Subject: RE: Distractions - always negative?

Hi Tony,

You raise a very valid point.

Neil
________________________________
From: Anthony Doran [t.doran@texthelp.com<mailto:t.doran@texthelp.com>]
Sent: 30 April 2015 14:41
To: public-cognitive-a11y-tf@w3.org<mailto:public-cognitive-a11y-tf@w3.org>
Subject: Distractions - always negative?
Hi All,

   Just wanted to kick about an idea - is distraction always negative? For example if a site features some additional AT, say TTS or symbol support, they may wish to have an animation or something to draw your attention to it - or if they have active help they may have a help pop-over.

   These things are distracting, and take focus from content consumption but do so for a positive reason.

   So is distraction always a negative thing?

--
Anthony Doran
Product Manager

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Anthony Doran
Product Manager

T: +44(0)28 9442 8105<tel:%2B44%280%2928%209442%208105>

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Texthelp, Lucas Exchange, 1 Orchard Way, Greystone Road, Antrim, Northern Ireland, BT41 2RU



--
Anthony Doran
Product Manager

T: +44(0)28 9442 8105

[http://www.texthelp.com/designimages/fbemail.png]<https://www.facebook.com/Texthelpers>  [http://www.texthelp.com/designimages/twemail.png] <https://twitter.com/texthelp>   [http://www.texthelp.com/designimages/inemail.png] <https://www.linkedin.com/company/texthelp>   [http://www.texthelp.com/designimages/gmail.png] <https://plus.google.com/u/0/+Texthelp/posts>

[http://www.texthelp.com/designimages/emailsig-logo.png]<http://www.texthelp.com/>



Texthelp, Lucas Exchange, 1 Orchard Way, Greystone Road, Antrim, Northern Ireland, BT41 2RU

--
Texthelp Ltd is a limited company registered in Belfast, N. Ireland with registration number NI31186 having its registered office and principal place of business at Lucas Exchange, 1 Orchard Way, Antrim, N. Ireland, BT41 2RU.

Received on Friday, 1 May 2015 14:40:26 UTC