> -----Original Message----- > On 4 Aug 2005 at 12:55, Andreas Boehmer [Addictive Me wrote: > > > > > Actually we have done some usability testing with a range > of disabled > > users recently. The site we tested did not have any dropdowns, > > however in particular users with hearing disabilities and cognitive > > disabilities asked for dropdowns to be added. > > From: Donna Maurer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, 4 August 2005 1:16 PM > To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org > Subject: RE: [WSG] New front page for http://abc.net.au/ > > Did you test with people without disabilities? I'm wondering > as I could interpret this as > meaning that the navigation groupings may not have been clear > and people wanted > the additional information. But this would happen for all groups...
Actually no, that particular site we only tested with disabled people, although I have to add the range of impairments was extremely wide, so I don't think we would have found many other results had we tested people without disabilities. I agree with you that the navigation groupings might have added to the users' need for additional information. But the users that did request the dropdowns mentioned following reasons: - Reduce mouse-clicks (especially on machines with slow Internet connection) - Get a quick, detailed overview of the content in all sections - Less content to read through The last point was in particular valuable for deaf users and users with reading impairment. As the website we tested had a lot of content on it, some users felt uncomortable with pages of long content. We did recommend against the dropdowns in the end, as this was only a smaller proportion of the overall users that requested this functionality and it probably would have caused problems for a couple of other users. However it was interesting to see that, depending on the angle you take on accessibility, dropdowns can certainly improve the usability of a website for some groups. Sorry, currently I cannot mention the name of the site for confidentiality reasons. Cheers, Andreas. ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
