Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
1. I think is fine, especially if it is promotional content. It may actually be helpful depending on your graphic design... sometime accordions don't stand out as accordions, and need a little eye pull... just make sure it doesnt happen too frequently, too fast, or too slow, unless any of those go with the feel / message of your site. 2. I DEFINITELY ADVISE AGAINST THIS. People when they are reading tend to move their mouse around, which can cause a problem for hover-state reacting interaction elements. I find hover states best for menu's or highlighting content... not so much for manipulating things that will require attention. 3. Mouseclick to alter state is definitely preferred. A click shows intent, and accidental clicks are rare... if the users mouse is even on the accordion bar (which is rather long and narrow generally), then its there for a reason (they have figured out the functionality)... it wont take them long to figure out to click. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36908 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
2009/1/9 Kordian Piotr Klecha kpkle...@gmail.com New main page is in alpha stage, but I will send there a link when it will be public beta. OK. Here it is. http://beta.wp.pl/ (Yes, upgrade of interaction with accordion is a must. We have already realize that.) Greetings, KPK Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
Hey, hey not to shabby and in a timely manner. It looks like the yahoo homepage met the apple apple homepage and made a baby iconic utility nav : ) The accordion doesn't do what I expected or wanted. What's with click to expand and it takes me outside the domain with no way back? I like how I can see all of your CSS code fun! Did you mod other js libraries? I'm seeing no 3rd remnants or evidence. Cool. Guess what I clicked on first! On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 5:02 AM, Kordian Piotr Klecha kpkle...@gmail.comwrote: 2009/1/9 Kordian Piotr Klecha kpkle...@gmail.com New main page is in alpha stage, but I will send there a link when it will be public beta. OK. Here it is. http://beta.wp.pl/ (Yes, upgrade of interaction with accordion is a must. We have already realize that.) Greetings, KPK Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
I don't agree with William. You shouldn't use stuff purely because it exists, but it certainly can help increase legibility and sometimes you simply have a lot of crap on your page. @Jeff: On FAQ pageshttp://www.welie.com/patterns/showPattern.php?patternID=faqan accordion can be great because you can see all the questions, and if you want an answer, just click the bar and it's right beneath it. You could think again about the auto-closing part, because it could change the height at which the qa pair begins and that makes it less usable. Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 3:19 AM, William Brall dam...@earthlink.net wrote: I hate the design idiom. The instrument is underused, though. Accordions are jazz. They are superfluous. They are a symptom of a cancer that should be cut out. The cause is senseless page bloat. Focus on tracking, prediction, and reduction. And you'll see that the need for accordions goes away. In other words. If you are considering them, you have too much crap on that page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36908 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 3:38 PM, Michael Micheletti michael.michele...@gmail.com wrote: Imagine the first round of usability tests on the oboe. :-) Total aside and off the track completely... I was privileged to attend a BBQ at Russ Unger's place last year and listen to some respected members of the IA/UX community discuss the relative merits of different styles and brands of ukulele - I am not sure that we can stop ourselves comparing one thing to another and evaluating them against our own heuristics, both individually and in groups. I've seen the same sort of conversation take place amongst wine/beer/camera/car/firearm/blog/forum/aquarium/dog/power tool/sword/PC/phone owners/geeks over the years. I've not thought of heuristics in terms of these informal bull sessions before - yet they were there all the time. Interesting. Best regards, Andrew -- --- Andrew Boyd http://uxcommunity.org -- User Experience Community http://uxbookclub.org -- connect, read, discuss Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
We tested these with a handful of users recently. Generally, they understood the interactions and functionality of the accordion widget. 1. We tested an auto-switch routine through the panels, once through then stopped it. The thought was that it would give the user some indication of how to access that content...turns out it was unnecessary and kinda distracting. 2 3. Assuming the affordance is given to the part-title bar, I don't think dual triggers would be needed and could cause some issues. Wouldn't hurt to build that into the prototype and test though. We found users had no hesitation clicking to access the content. Chris -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Kordian Piotr Klecha Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 9:51 AM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions No, I don't mean harmoshkas, but boxes with sliding parts, e.g.: http://www.stickmanlabs.com/accordion/ We are going to use such box on the main page (in the bottom of column - not very important content there, but still) and just wondering about interactions. Current proposition is: 1. Accordion auto-switches to the next part after every 5 seconds when mouse pointer is outside the box. 2. OnMouseOver any part-title bar opens this part (with latency 200ms). 3. Clicking on part-title bar opens it too. Especially point 2 is a manner of doubt. Any advices, examples, opinions? Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
Having just created a design pattern library for my company, I'm pretty well-versed on these! There are actually two design patterns: accordions and show/hide panels. Accordions only allow one bar's contents to display at a time. These are usually used to show details for steps in a procedure, for example. Show/hide panels allow multiple bars' content to be shown at a time, relying on the user to click the bars to show/hide them. We have found that this works best for our interactions. One main use is to show detail for categories (the category name would be the bar title, then clicking on it would explain more about that category). In my opinion, I wouldn't automatically switch the selected bar. I wouldn't expect that behavior as a user. I don't have a strong opinion on hover-over. I think it would work well and if someone didn't realize that they could click on the bar title, but were mousing around the screen, they would discover that feature. If you haven't already, check out welie.com for Martijn van Welie's great design pattern work or designinginterfaces.com for Jennifer Tidwell's. Courtney Jordan Senior User Experience Architect -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Kordian Piotr Klecha Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 9:51 AM To: disc...@ixda.org 1. Accordion auto-switches to the next part after every 5 seconds when mouse pointer is outside the box. 2. OnMouseOver any part-title bar opens this part (with latency 200ms). 3. Clicking on part-title bar opens it too. Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
Well. I work with JQuery. 1. Accordion auto-switches to the next part after every 5 seconds when mouse pointer is outside the box. F: That would be cool. But have a look at some Innerfade plugins out there. They rotate some content every X seconds. Accordion usually is used as some kind of menu. Innerfade as some kind of banner rotation. 2. OnMouseOver any part-title bar opens this part (with latency 200ms). F: This could be a problem. If I leave your part-title bar the content will disappear? Or the content relative to the part-title bar will still be visible? Maybe a click event would be better. 3. Clicking on part-title bar opens it too. F: This would be better than point 2. And you could hide the content of the clickable part-title bar after a mouse leaving event. []s Fábio On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 11:51 AM, Kordian Piotr Klecha kpkle...@gmail.comwrote: No, I don't mean harmoshkas, but boxes with sliding parts, e.g.: http://www.stickmanlabs.com/accordion/ We are going to use such box on the main page (in the bottom of column - not very important content there, but still) and just wondering about interactions. Current proposition is: 1. Accordion auto-switches to the next part after every 5 seconds when mouse pointer is outside the box. 2. OnMouseOver any part-title bar opens this part (with latency 200ms). 3. Clicking on part-title bar opens it too. Especially point 2 is a manner of doubt. Any advices, examples, opinions? Reply to this thread at ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36908 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
I like the concept of the FAQ accordion, Jeroen, but the example you posted is not a working example. All the same, it's good idea for conserving space and it is a functional enhancement. In such a use case, I would be happier if it also behaved as Kordian's example does (defaulting to display all content when javascript is disabled, or enabled in all cases by server-side scripting). Thanks for pointing that out! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36908 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
I'd love to hear more about your pattern library, Courtney. On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 9:54 AM, Jordan, Courtney cjor...@bbandt.com wrote: Having just created a design pattern library for my company, I'm pretty well-versed on these! There are actually two design patterns: accordions and show/hide panels. Accordions only allow one bar's contents to display at a time. I'm collaborating with the YUI (http://developer.yahoo.com/yui) team on an accordion pattern and am about to post something to the YUI blog to seek community feedback (coincidentally, this extended thread has covered much of the same ground). At this point, by the rules of an earlier poster I realize I have auto-Godwinized this discussion by mentioning the Y in YUI. I will save my disquisition on industrial strength ux for another time and refocus. Anyway, I'm finding that designers tend to be far more prescriptive about defining things like accordions. They don't all agree with your assertion that (paraphrasing) accordions only allow one panel to be shown at a time (and that this is in fact what distinguishes an accordion from a stack of show/hide panels), but many do. Plus they all seem to agree that there is a rule. The front-end engineers, of course, are looking at it not from the point of view of a user, experiencing the interface element and forming a mental model of it based on its behaviors. They look at how it's made and when they abstract that, they say that an accordion is a type of tree. The YUI folks in particular, who serve both an internal front-end engineer audience within Yahoo! as well as a wide developer community at large, *know* that eventually somebody will want an accordion within an accordion with a scrollbar and panels that blink on hover. They don't see themselves as usability cops at the code level. When we release an accordion component, it will likely have some default rules and a great deal of configurable flexibility. At the pattern level, though, we will make recommendations, share competing notions abroad in our communities of practice, and perhaps even say that what makes an accordion is that only one panel opens at a time (which, ironically, is exactly how an actual accordion does not work). ... If you haven't already, check out welie.com for Martijn van Welie's great design pattern work or designinginterfaces.com for Jennifer Tidwell's. I always do. And the Yahoo design pattern library always links to them when there's an analogous or related pattern in their (and other collections). If I had a good way to do it, I would transclude some of their patterns directly into ours. -xian- -- Christian Crumlish I'm writing a book so please forgive any lag http://designingsocialinterfaces.com Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
I propose a new law. In IxD discussions if people bring up Yahoo it should be as Godwin's Law. Yahoo, while slightly better now then in the past, is still one of the worst offenders when it comes to poor usability. A close second is almost every Newspaper site. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36908 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
yaWho? On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 4:53 PM, William Brall dam...@earthlink.net wrote: I propose a new law. In IxD discussions if people bring up Yahoo it should be as Godwin's Law. Yahoo, while slightly better now then in the past, is still one of the worst offenders when it comes to poor usability. A close second is almost every Newspaper site. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36908 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
If I understand you correctly, Sachin, your concern is that we are impeding the progress of good web design if we caution against the use of this accordion structure that I call a gimmick. Rather, what I want to suggest is that we move forward thoughtfully. I am an accessibility advocate, and accessibility does not concern itself only with screen readers and other alternatives to the standard browser. In the end, it requires exactly what Angel points to above: Adherence to Web Standards, Progressive Enhancement, Graceful Degradation, and Unobtrusive Enhancements. Kordian has now clarified that the accordion function is only a small component of the final product, and we can see already that the model he provided was accessible without javascript ... some accordion implementations are not. So really, I wouldn't discourage its use. I just personally favor simplicity, and I believe that any feature of an interface that isn't truly useful (not merely pretty) should be discarded. The most beautiful cars are the ones with the cleanest lines, not the ones with the most accessories attached to them. The same may be said of women (men too, I suppose) and web interfaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36908 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
In line with Christine slightly off topic reply, the usability perspective on musical instruments is really interesting. Check out Andy Hunt's research. His testing (as far as I can remember) shows that for musical applications, complex interfaces with divergent mapping of user input is preferable (with training of course). http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~elec18/download/adh_thesis/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36908 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
2009/1/8 Jeff Seager abro...@hotmail.com I do think it's worth mentioning that accessibility is an important component of usability, and the example you posted is fully accessible with javascript disabled, Kordian ... oh, wait a minute, do you want to use the accordion structure because your name is Kordian? THAT might be an acceptable excuse! Nice shot! :] Thanks for all helpful advices and opinions (including these about REAL accordions and their usability). I did not mention: accordion we are going to use is planned on the new version of portal's main page. It's not my concept - this time I just have to make someone else's project usable, so do not assume that I WANT TO use accordion. I just have to. Still, I don't think that's bad idea. Look at e.g. yahoo.com - we are going to use one mini-accordion more or less in the place of Small Business/Featured Services on the bottom of their left column. In our case left column is even longer. The goal *is* to catch user's eye - because almost nobody looks there when it's static. And no, we are not afraid that it will interrupt reading main content, because main content in this place is bunch of links and summaries. New main page is in alpha stage, but I will send there a link when it will be public beta. Greetings, KPK Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
If the accordion is part of being different and fancy in navigation and user interface then are we stating that one should not get fancy when we complain about the negative impact of accordions? Where does that leave the user interface or navigation for the same when technologies are advancing? We then are not moving with the times or probably not finding correct solutions to understand the usability of these fancy navigations. What I would like to see is all of us understand where the users are behaving on the web and how we are adapting to the new technology which will only make the user experience far more fruitful. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36908 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
I concur with William, basically. There could be exceptions (please show me one), but I think in most cases the accordion construction is an unnecessary gimmick. I do think it's worth mentioning that accessibility is an important component of usability, and the example you posted is fully accessible with javascript disabled, Kordian ... oh, wait a minute, do you want to use the accordion structure because your name is Kordian? THAT might be an acceptable excuse! My suggestion is to use it very sparingly if at all. These gimmicks are a bit like specialized photographic filters, in or out of Photoshop, and above all the presentation should suit the intended purpose. First criterion: Does this tool or implementation really support the fundamental message I want to convey? If the answer is yes, THEN you can think about how to integrate it. Cheers, Jeff (a fan of the wee Celtic button accordion) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36908 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
You are correct. *default* Principleshttp://www.xfront.com/progressive-enhancement-graceful-degradation/index.html Progressive EnhancementGraceful Degradation Unobtrusive Enhancements Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions - an example
It's not bad. Problem is I didn't know where the accordian was you were mentioning until my mouse accidently moved over them. Think a better use is comething like this(in Silverlight): http://www.ms-gearup.com/etoolkit/ Where you can tell the minimzed boxes are clickable to be maximized. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36937 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
I hate the design idiom. The instrument is underused, though. Accordions are jazz. They are superfluous. They are a symptom of a cancer that should be cut out. The cause is senseless page bloat. Focus on tracking, prediction, and reduction. And you'll see that the need for accordions goes away. In other words. If you are considering them, you have too much crap on that page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36908 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
http://jquery.bassistance.de/validate/demo/multipart/ I used the above awhile back. Jquery and Mootools are easier for me than prototype. I once had a friend who's family was from Denmark and they had an outdoor bbq fiesta...The Danish flag was flying and the band was in full effect. I tried to jam out with the accordion guy; but, he insisted to play music we had to follow the sheet music. My strategy was to say 'you are absolutely right' Instruments are all whack. Though, the way to communicate song by writing music and taking the understanding to say the level of counterpoint is true mastery. On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 6:19 PM, William Brall dam...@earthlink.net wrote: I hate the design idiom. The instrument is underused, though. Accordions are jazz. They are superfluous. They are a symptom of a cancer that should be cut out. The cause is senseless page bloat. Focus on tracking, prediction, and reduction. And you'll see that the need for accordions goes away. In other words. If you are considering them, you have too much crap on that page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36908 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
No, I don't mean harmoshkas, but boxes with sliding parts, e.g.: http://www.stickmanlabs.com/accordion/ We are going to use such box on the main page (in the bottom of column - not very important content there, but still) and just wondering about interactions. Current proposition is: 1. Accordion auto-switches to the next part after every 5 seconds when mouse pointer is outside the box. 2. OnMouseOver any part-title bar opens this part (with latency 200ms). 3. Clicking on part-title bar opens it too. Especially point 2 is a manner of doubt. Any advices, examples, opinions? Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
LOL! I love this subject line! But perhaps not for the reason you think. I come from Wisconsin and my grandma played the accordion in a polka band. So not to derail a discussion of interface accordions, but let us pause for a moment and consider REAL accordions! Like, here is my puzzle. If our field had existed at the time that these musical instruments were evolving, would we have told them to toss the design in the ashcan as TOO COMPLEX for any users to master? Look at the humble accordion, for instance. You got a keyboard on one side, funky buttons on the other side (all unlabeled! Oh no! It's worse than blinking 12!), AND you gotta squeeze the damn thing in and out the whole time to make any sounds at all. Plus, it does have a definite tendency to wheeze a bit if you don't know what you're doing, much the same as a clarinet will squeak if you aren't good with the reed yet. AND... it was not designed strictly for professionals, just as that unfretted violin was not. Both have long histories as instruments for blue collar amateurs, to entertain their families, at parties, and so on. Music for the masses, to fiddle jigs (my grandpa played the fiddle, grandma the accordion, and never played together, as far as I know). What of it? Would our field reject most musical instruments as beyond the pale? Could they ever be invented today, or anything remotely like a success? OR would they be more correctly situated as social media, since their folk uses were in settings that were primarily social, the very glue that held communities together? Chris On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 9:51 AM, Kordian Piotr Klecha kpkle...@gmail.comwrote: No, I don't mean harmoshkas, but boxes with sliding parts, e.g.: http://www.stickmanlabs.com/accordion/ We are going to use such box on the main page (in the bottom of column - not very important content there, but still) and just wondering about interactions. Current proposition is: 1. Accordion auto-switches to the next part after every 5 seconds when mouse pointer is outside the box. 2. OnMouseOver any part-title bar opens this part (with latency 200ms). 3. Clicking on part-title bar opens it too. Especially point 2 is a manner of doubt. Any advices, examples, opinions? Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
The best way to go forward would be to get a good number of representative or actual users and simply do two simple A-B tests on the same users. I'm not or expanding on participants and numbers because there is no information given about what your site is about, who does it target and whether it's live or not. Test 1- accordion without auto-switching and and accordion with auto-switching Probe the participants in context of what you want to accomplish through the auto-switching and choose which way to go. Test 2- accordion with 'open panel' upon MouseOver and accordion without 'open panel' upon MouseOver Observe more and probe to validate whether users find this confusing, irritating or just fine/ needs minor adjustment to suit their taste. But otherwise, in my opinion, points 1 and 2 could be implemented as mentioned or the other way round, without any major concerns to users. The only points to take note would be: Point 1- Accordion auto-switches to the next part after every 5 seconds when mouse pointer is outside the box. It's fine if it does or doesn't. But you should consider avoiding the slide transition while showing changing panels. This will avoid the accordion from distracting the user from the other content on the page (you said this is not very important content). Instead, you would like to use the slide transition to help the users are operating the UI so they realize the change in state of the changing panels more easily. Point 2- OnMouseOver any part-title bar opens this part (with latency 200ms). It's fine if it does or doesn't. But in case it does, the latency could be decided by testing it out with 10-15 folks across departments in your organization to what seems natural and fit. Cone -- Cone Trees- User Research Design a href=http://www.conetrees.com;www.conetrees.com/a a href=http://www.twitter.com/conetrees;Twitter: conetrees/a On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 8:21 PM, Kordian Piotr Klecha kpkle...@gmail.comwrote: No, I don't mean harmoshkas, but boxes with sliding parts, e.g.: http://www.stickmanlabs.com/accordion/ We are going to use such box on the main page (in the bottom of column - not very important content there, but still) and just wondering about interactions. Current proposition is: 1. Accordion auto-switches to the next part after every 5 seconds when mouse pointer is outside the box. 2. OnMouseOver any part-title bar opens this part (with latency 200ms). 3. Clicking on part-title bar opens it too. Especially point 2 is a manner of doubt. Any advices, examples, opinions? Reply to this thread at ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36908 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help -- Cone Trees- User Research Design http://www.conetrees.com http://www.twitter.com/conetrees Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions
On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 9:43 AM, Christine Boese christine.bo...@gmail.comwrote: What of it? Would our field reject most musical instruments as beyond the pale? Could they ever be invented today, or anything remotely like a success? Imagine the first round of usability tests on the oboe. :-) Michael Micheletti Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions - an example
Here's a nice example: http://www.biocompare.com/ Mary Keitelman Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 00:57:18 +0530 From: he...@conetrees.com To: kpkle...@gmail.com CC: disc...@ixda.org Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of accordions The best way to go forward would be to get a good number of representative or actual users and simply do two simple A-B tests on the same users. I'm not or expanding on participants and numbers because there is no information given about what your site is about, who does it target and whether it's live or not. Test 1- accordion without auto-switching and and accordion with auto-switching Probe the participants in context of what you want to accomplish through the auto-switching and choose which way to go. Test 2- accordion with 'open panel' upon MouseOver and accordion without 'open panel' upon MouseOver Observe more and probe to validate whether users find this confusing, irritating or just fine/ needs minor adjustment to suit their taste. But otherwise, in my opinion, points 1 and 2 could be implemented as mentioned or the other way round, without any major concerns to users. The only points to take note would be: Point 1- Accordion auto-switches to the next part after every 5 seconds when mouse pointer is outside the box. It's fine if it does or doesn't. But you should consider avoiding the slide transition while showing changing panels. This will avoid the accordion from distracting the user from the other content on the page (you said this is not very important content). Instead, you would like to use the slide transition to help the users are operating the UI so they realize the change in state of the changing panels more easily. Point 2- OnMouseOver any part-title bar opens this part (with latency 200ms). It's fine if it does or doesn't. But in case it does, the latency could be decided by testing it out with 10-15 folks across departments in your organization to what seems natural and fit. Cone -- Cone Trees- User Research Design a href=http://www.conetrees.com;www.conetrees.com/a a href=http://www.twitter.com/conetrees;Twitter: conetrees/a On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 8:21 PM, Kordian Piotr Klecha kpkle...@gmail.comwrote: No, I don't mean harmoshkas, but boxes with sliding parts, e.g.: http://www.stickmanlabs.com/accordion/ We are going to use such box on the main page (in the bottom of column - not very important content there, but still) and just wondering about interactions. Current proposition is: 1. Accordion auto-switches to the next part after every 5 seconds when mouse pointer is outside the box. 2. OnMouseOver any part-title bar opens this part (with latency 200ms). 3. Clicking on part-title bar opens it too. Especially point 2 is a manner of doubt. Any advices, examples, opinions? Reply to this thread at ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36908 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help -- Cone Trees- User Research Design http://www.conetrees.com http://www.twitter.com/conetrees Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help _ Life on your PC is safer, easier, and more enjoyable with Windows Vista®. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/127032870/direct/01/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
