Re: Site Maps and nested navigation

On 12 Dec 2005, at 12:35 AM, Anthony Ettinger wrote:
> you can include the much utilized "Skip to content" link at the top of 
> the page.

This *still* doesn't solve the problem of how to move up and down the 
first level menu items. The standard keys (tab, for most of us) go 
through the entire menu, one must use the arrow keys to skip the 
submenus, and that is not obvious for users. In Opera the submenus do 
not appear when focussed - i.e. there is no visual feedback that you 
are on a submenu.

If one collects the link list (usual practice for screen reader and 
lynx users) every link on the page is returned - that's the site map 
disguised as a menu - and that is just not helpful for finding your way 
around. To illustrate: the udm4 homepage has 128 links, the download 
link is number 113. If I want to read the section on expanding menus, 
the worst case is I have to press tab round 270 times, or guess how 
many times I need to press 'page down' to reduce my tabbing.

kind regards
Terrence Wood.

>
> On 12/10/05, Terrence Wood <tdw@funkive.com> wrote:
>
>
> On 8 Dec 2005, at 11:20 AM, Rebecca Cox wrote:
> > I agree - vast lists not a good thing. However, if you have to use
> > them, and also have to present them as dropdown menus, have you 
> looked
> > at UDM?
> >
> > See http://www.udm4.com/
>
> UDM is the nicest js menu around.... biggest problem is, apart from not
> working in Opera (the onfocus doesn't fire), how do you let users know
> how to use it (using arrow keys is not obvious)?
>
> And it still doesn't solve the issue of page weight due to having the
> site map load with every page.
>
> Drop down menu's - just avoid them.

Received on Sunday, 11 December 2005 19:55:25 UTC