Hi Antranig, Thanks much for your comments! I agree that it could be jarring for users if the viewport jumped to show them the entire time picker if it was at the very bottom of the page. However, I don't think the scrollbars will be an issue--more than likely the scrollbars will already be on the page, and there would only be a small adjustment to the user's position within the scrollbar (e.g. just as when a page loads, the button/block used to move the scrollbar will move up slightly to show that there is more page below where the user is on the page).
Even if scrollbars did have to appear in the unlikely event that the time picker was at the exact place where it's appearance turned on the scrollbars, these are *helpful, necessary* (not spurious) scrollbars which will allow the user to get to their content. As there is no other way to get to the content they are needed, and I think it would be a natural inclination for users when they can't get to the bottom of the page to look for a scrollbar (so I'd argue they'd be a welcome sight). :) Finally, in a pinch if the user didn't immediately realize they could scroll, they *could* just interact with the top part of the time picker to pick their time, or enter it in the text field. This may not be the ideal interaction, and is definitely a factor we are using to weigh which of the two alternate time pickers would be better. We will also strongly consider results from user testing we plan to do of the two time pickers, and community input about the relative usefulness of each picker for your users, so please do keep it coming! :) Thanks, Allison On Dec 2, 2008, at 10:23 AM, Antranig Basman wrote: > Hi there - just a little clarification of my own - > Much as with the inline-edit "special characters" family of issues, > when I mean to say > that this is a "technical issue" I don't specifically mean "this is > a technical issue > which we can't think how to resolve" but "this is an issue which has > a technical > origin, but whose fixes have costs whose implications are too awful > to contemplate" :) > > I hate to sound like a "developer who meddles in usability" but from > what I can see, > the issues of a widget whose presence changes the absolute size of > the viewport > unexpectedly, or still worse, causes scrollbars to appear which the > user would have > to manipulate to successfully use the control (or worse still causes > the viewport to > jump) is a usability nightmare. The unexpected appearance of > spurious scrollbars is, > for example, one of the more serious beefs we have against iframes. > "Am I wrong?" > :P > Cheers, > Antranig. > > > Eli Cochran wrote: >> >> Just a little clarification on what I tested and the results. >> Erin's comments are >> essentially correct but I want to rephrase it slightly so that >> there isn't any >> confusion. >> >> I tested what happens when a page is scrolled to the bottom of the >> browser window >> (geekily known as the viewport) and an absolutely positioned >> element is popped-up >> (displayed) at or near the bottom of a page with part of the >> element extending below the >> bottom edge of the browser window. >> >> As expected the size of the page is extended so that the scrolling >> area of browser >> encompasses the displayed item and the user can scroll to the >> bottom of the absolutely >> positioned element. >> >> This test was done with Firefox. >> >> - Eli >> >> On Dec 2, 2008, at 9:19 AM, Erin Yu wrote: >> >>> We had a productive discussion about the date and time picker with >>> Antranig and >>> Jonathan at the all-hands. One of the technical concerns was that >>> since the time >>> picker wheel is fixed around the text field, it might get cut off >>> when the text field >>> is at the very bottom of the page. Eli did a quick test and was >>> able to tell us that >>> when the the time picker pops up at the bottom of the page, the >>> extra area of the page >>> can become scrollable to show the full length of the time picker. >>> > _______________________________________________________ > fluid-work mailing list - [email protected] > To unsubscribe, change settings or access archives, > see http://fluidproject.org/mailman/listinfo/fluid-work Allison Bloodworth Senior User Interaction Designer Educational Technology Services University of California, Berkeley (415) 377-8243 [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________________ fluid-work mailing list - [email protected] To unsubscribe, change settings or access archives, see http://fluidproject.org/mailman/listinfo/fluid-work
