[mb-users] A Call For Feedback - "StructuredXHTML" branch

[Frederic Da Vitoria]

2007/7/11, Oliver Charles <oliver.g.charles at googlemail.com>:
> Thank you both for your feedback - really fast, and I really
> appreciate it!
>
> Frederic first:

First of all, all my remarks will be blind-users oriented because this
is the only impairment I know.

> I've darkened the links a bit, down from #736DAB to #534D8B. I still
> think this a bit unclear, considered making the links bold but that
> might be a bit TOO much. Not sure though, but this colour change does
> make them a bit more readable.

The color is much better. We'd need someone with an actual visual
problem to say, but at least to my eyes it is much clearer.

> The search box on the left is in pretty active design at the moment.
> My idea was to have helper text in each box (Artist, Label, etc) that
> disappeared on click. I made this light gray and italic so not to
> distract from the main page, and it does turn full black when you
> click on a box to type in it.
>
> The thing with having the sidebar so narrow is that fitting the
> labels for the search fields is now tricky, without reducing the size
> of the search field. I'd love to hear if anyone has any other ideas
> on making the search on the sidebar both accessible  and practical!
>
> The tab order I hadn't really considered, that was just copied
> verbatim from the original design. I have now re-arranged them, as
> you suggested. I hope it won't confuse too many people though! I've
> also re-arranged the submenus too, into alphabetical order, but it's
> easy to revert - so please scream if you don't like this :)

The tab order is correct now.


> Wasn't quite sure what you meant about the browse release page in
> reference to the tabs, mind clarifiying?

I meant it was correct in the browse release page, but I already
explained this in my previous post ;-)


> The top menu should be navigable with just a keyboard, but not in one
> session, you'll have to go to separate pages. I'll look into working
> some javascript-fu on that in the future (but not for this merge)

Both menu orders have their good points, I don't really prefer one or the other.

About using the keyboard, you don't really have to make the menus
usable with the keyboard, just remember that someone with a visual
impairment will probably not use the mouse at all, so everything must
be possible just by using the keyboard. But it does not mean the
current system (drop down menus) should be usable. For example, I
don't see how you can open the menu with the keyboard itself (which
would be done with the f10 key in a Windows application). So if there
is no solution to this initial problem, don't spend time and trouble
on making navigation in the menus usable with the keyboard! I'd say an
acceptable solution is that all MB pages should be accessible by using
conventional links, even if this means going through intermediate
pages.


> Thanks for the feedback Frederic, hope I'm on the right lines with
> these updated changes!

You are welcome. Thanks for doing the programming :-)

-- 
Frederic Da Vitoria