Re: Visibly hidden controls

On 12/05/2016 03:17 PM, Terrill Thompson wrote:
> Hi All,
>
*snip*
>
> Chromeless media players are a common example. By default there are no
> controls other than (perhaps) a large play button that's overlaid over a
> poster image. When the video is playing there are no controls at all.
> However, if a mouse user hovers over the video a control bar appears.
>
> Depending on how it's coded the control bar might be accessible to
> screen reader users, and might even be visibly exposed to keyboard users
> once it receives focus, but from my perspective if it's not visible,

*snip*

This is common on news websites and there are several where I left 
because the media started auto-playing but all I wanted was to read the 
story and I couldn't figure out how to stop the video. I'm sure there 
was a secret, but I couldn't figure it out.

One of my favorite websites, my ability to navigate it went away because 
the menu vanished. I thought it was a web design bug. After a month I 
finally e-mailed customer support to find out that the menu was now 
hidden by default and I had to press something that looked like three 
bars to show it.

I then asked them why they couldn't put the word "menu" next to it, and 
why it needed to be collapsed.

The response I got was it needs to be collapsed to make the site look 
better on cell phones and that everyone knows the three bars opens it, 
that's the standard.

I guess because I mostly use my phone as a phone (I don't trust the 
privacy / security of the app craze) it was a "standard" I wasn't hip 
enough to know about.

I still wonder why they can't put the work "menu" next to it, surely 
there's even enough room on a cell phone...

Anyway yes, I agree with you, controls need to either be visible or if 
they are hidden it needs to be obvious how to access them.

I weep at many of the web interfaces designed by today's "professionals".

Received on Tuesday, 6 December 2016 04:13:21 UTC