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

> From: Mallory van Achterberg [mailto:stommepoes@stommepoes.nl]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 7:11 PM
[...] 
> The core navigation is rarely marked up using ordered lists because, I would
> think, it never changes the meaning or function of those links if instead of
> starting with Home, you start with Products or Contact.
> Our customers' main menus are pretty much just a dump of their main
> product categories, in whichever order they thought them up.

While I don't doubt you, do you have any data to back up "rarely marked up using ordered lists?"


> My grocery list doesn't really care if I put the bananas first, last or in the
> middle, or where the milk is.

To be super pedantic, I care. I order my grocery list by the path I take through the grocery store so I don't have to skip around my list to mark stuff off. It's also a nested list in my case (Produce: apples, pears. Dairy: milk, eggs. Meat: bacon, more bacon.).

> If my grocery list were a Hansel/Gretel thing, though, where I must (or
> should) follow a specific path (first thing I encounter when entering the store
> is the fruits/vegetables section so bananas should be first; then milk when I
> get to Dairy; then phone minutes at the cashier)... now it's an ordered list.

Yep, that's me.


> Regarding other comments, I don't understand how "breadcrumbs" ever
> became interpreted as meaning "hierarchy and not paths". Do I mis-
> remember the story? The kids made a path, out of crumbs of bread?

Going back a decade or more, I recall the debates (on evolt.org) about whether a breadcrumb should indicate a path or a hierarchy.

My recollection, and my experience surfing about the web, indicates that the hierarchy approach won. As users drop into sites via search engines, a breadcrumb provides orientation for one's current location within the structure of the site. Otherwise a breadcrumb could be nothing more than "Google > Dish Soap." Also, we already have a back button to allow people to back out of where they ended up.

Yes, this is anecdotal. But it's also based on a cursory look around the web just now.


> I'm against the nested lists because of the code complexity, but it does make
> semantic sense, if the purpose of a breadcrumb was to show heirarchy
> instead of simply making an easy shortcut to related items for users in an
> ordered manner, which is how I use them.
[...]

I agree. But there should also be no prohibition against nested lists...

Unless we find that they are a barrier to accessibility.

Received on Tuesday, 17 September 2013 22:19:50 UTC