Question thread #28

[pauamma]

It's time for another question thread!

The rules:

- You may ask any dev-related question you have in a comment. (It doesn't even need to be about Dreamwidth, although if it involves a language/library/framework/database Dreamwidth doesn't use, you will probably get answers pointing that out and suggesting a better place to ask.)
- You may also answer any question, using the guidelines given in To Answer, Or Not To Answer and in this comment thread.

Comments

[ninetydegrees]

(quicker reply! still a surprise every time)

Possibly an OT question but here I go anyway:
I was making a style and I noticed search used pretty old design both on journals and on the site (compared to the now usual custom of using a magnifier icon and putting it within the search field instead of having a whole button besides it) and I wondered if it was a choice or it just happened to be that way. In particular, I wondered if it was because newer designs aren't accessible or user-friendly? Or don't account for people who don't display pics. Or disable JS. I also noticed the beta Create Entries page made bigger use of iconography but there was very often text to accompany it. So yeah, I'm intrigued about the reasoning behind some design decisions because it's not often discussed here in dev but I think it's very important.

[fu]

It is honestly mostly because of a lack of time to work on it.

There are certainly ways to make the newer designs accessible; as for user-friendliness, I believe that the new designs are common enough that people identify the pattern.

(With caveats of making sure there’s a [hidden] label for screenreaders / dictation users, etc)

For icons, we should always have text to explain them. Visible text almost always; non-visible only for the most common patterns that are immediately recognisable (e.g., a search box).

[ninetydegrees]

Thanks a lot of taking the time to answer! And for giving me food for thought for the designs I'm working on. :) It's always great to learn about best practices and why they are so.

[fu]

Look for "bulletproof icon fonts" -- it's a great resource I've gone over a lot :)