Is this covered by 2.2.1 (Timing Adjustable)

We have a shopping site where users can browse the site when they are 
either logged in or not. We are looking to see how 2.2.1 impacts 
logged-in users on this site.
We want the session timeout to be as unobtrusive as possible -  as such 
this is what happens currently for logged in users.

Scenario 1) If a logged-in shopper’s session times out while they are 
shopping, they can continue shopping seamlessly. Only when they go to 
check out or access their account information are they asked to log in. 
When they log in, any changes they had made to their shopping cart while 
timed out are intact.

  My strict reading of 2.2.1 is that in this case the application should 
have provided a method for the user to extend the session before the 
timeout occurred. Do others concur on this? I feel that the conventional 
methods of extending the session (like a popup as seen on many bank 
sites) would be more distracting to a user than the current behaviour.  
I really don't want to ask the application to implement something which 
would IMO make the UI worse for everybody.

Scenario 2)    If a logged-in shopper’s session times out while they are 
editing account information, they are prompted to log in again when they 
attempt to save their changes. Their unsaved edits are intact.

Again this seems to require a timeout prompt before the session expires 
with a strict reading of 2.2.1. I would generally be ok with asking the 
application to add a timeout warning here, as it is within a constrained 
process - but, again, I'm not sure it would actually make the user 
experience better for anyone.

I would appreciate any input on these scenarios and how others have 
coped with them in the past.


-- 
Regards, James

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