RE: Action Item: 2.2 Proposal (Distractions)

Hi Kynn,

I think you're on the right track.  Some thoughts...

1.) There is a slight ambiguity in the sentence "Use distractive
presentations only when it is necessary to capture the user's attention."
It could be read as "Use ... only when capturing the user's attention is
necessary" or as "Use ... only when the user's attention cannot be captured
without it". 

2.)
Things which have the right to distract users seem closely related to the
"essential purpose" Len was championing on the list awhile ago.  Perhaps we
can integrate that concept.  

3.)
If you're going to list things which have the right to distract the user,
advertisements should be on the list <ducking/>.  

4.)
We should say something about making it possible/easy for the user to get
back to the pre-distraction state.  This is really only relevant to the
screen reader case, not the crawling ants case.

Something like

2.2 Use distractive presentations only when it is necessary to capture the
      user's attention.

2.x If you use distractive presentations, make it obvious to the user what
has happened, and make it clear to the user how to return to the previous
state.

So, if I pop up an alert, a screen reader should say "alert" + viewable text
of the alert + "press enter to dismiss".  I'm not sure exactly how one would
accomplish this in current browsers (without adding a bunch of ugly text),
so maybe it is for UAAG.

5.) I'll ask around and see if I can find out what the folks who design
"distractive presentations" call them.  




-----Original Message-----
From: Kynn Bartlett [mailto:kynn-edapta@idyllmtn.com]
Sent: Monday, March 12, 2001 6:49 AM
To: w3c-wai-gl@w3.org
Subject: Action Item: 2.2 Proposal (Distractions)


This was another action item from Boston face-to-face.  The goal wsa
to try to make this clearer, make it a "positive" if possible, not a
"thou shalt not", explain the difference between -desired- animation
and -undesired- animation, and hopefully make it something Cynthia
doesn't hate.  Dunno if I succeeded. :)

BTW, note that I am flailing around for a good term; your thoughts on
terminology are welcome.

Action Item:  Rewrite 2.2, make cynthia like it, turn it around to a
positive

2.2  Use distractive presentations only when it is necessary to capture the
      user's attention.

      <!-- note:  need a better term than "distractive presentations" -- I
      had originally written "distractive elements" but "elements" is a
reserved
      word in markup and thus would be confusing to use in this context,
      perhaps -->

      <glossary>Distractive presentations</glossary> are design elements
which
      interfere with the user's abilities to concentrate on a user-selected
      action, such as entering data, reading/hearing text, and so on.

      Presentation forms which cause distraction vary based on the type
      of communication employed.  Visual distraction elements are based
      upon movement, such as animation effects.  Sound distractions
      <!-- ideas for this? -->.  Multimedia presentations combine one or
      more of these techniques.

      Because distractive presentations make it harder for the user to
      perform a task, they should be used only when there is a specific
      need to capture the user's attention.  For example, <glossary>alerts
      </glossary> should use distractive techniques, and distractive
      techniques may prove useful for highlighting specific changes
      or to provide context for user input (such as an animated cursor
      indicator).

      Note:  There is no one standard to say what would be a distraction
      for any given user; people are individuals and what may be a
      major distraction to one person might be easily ignored by others.


-- 
Kynn Bartlett <kynn@idyllmtn.com>
http://www.kynn.com/

Received on Tuesday, 13 March 2001 14:29:34 UTC