JSTOR Labs, as it happens, is working right now on a phone app for the US
Constitution and had the same question as you (for people to
expand/collapse articles and sections of the constitution). Last week
when we showed this to users, some users said ³yes, self-closing² and
others wanted to keep them open. In general, I¹d say they preferred ones
that closed as you opened others, and that¹s what we have implemented (at
least for now).
Obviously, this is just one example, and I certainly wouldn¹t claim that
our user testing was representative, but I hope it¹s helpful nonetheless.
Best,
Alex
--
Alex Humphreys
Associate Vice President, JSTOR and Director, JSTOR Labs
2 Rector Street
18th Floor
New York, NY 10065
alex.humphr...@ithaka.org
@abhumphreys
On 12/18/15, 3:01 PM, "Code for Libraries on behalf of Kyle Breneman"
<CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU on behalf of tomeconque...@gmail.com> wrote:
>Our library website is currently being redesigned to be responsive. The
>work is being done by an outside design firm and the project is being
>managed by University Relations, our school's PR department.
>
>The mobile version of our responsive site has several accordion menus
>(similar to attached). I've asked for these accordion menus to be
>self-closing; in other words, there is never more than one expansion of an
>accordion open at one time - if a user clicks to open another part of the
>accordion, the first part simultaneously slides shut.
>
>I've been told that self-closing accordions are contrary to best
>practices:
>
>"Unfortunately, no, as this isn¹t best practice. Accordions should require
>a click each to open and close; in other words, nothing on your page
>should
>move without a user action. This is true throughout our sites. See the
>universal Quick Links in mobile."
>
>Is it true that self-closing accordion menus run counter to best practices
>in mobile web design? The sort of behavior that I'm asking for seems, to
>me, intuitive and expected.
>
>Thanks for your input!
>
>Kyle Breneman
>Integrated Digital Services Librarian
>University of Baltimore
