Usability Challenges With Context Bar In General

[duracell80]

There is still far too much onscreen movement and animations and transitions in the UI of Alloy Editor and there is no way for the user to make Alloy Editor "static" for their editing session. Icons within the context bar appear in different parts of the screen constantly based on the position of the cursor.

There are too many distracting user interactions for a user with ADD, ADHD, Autism or general Sensory Processing issues who may find it overwhelming to have so many visual distractions occurring.

In general the accessibility of this editor is harmed for both sensory disability as well as motor or dexterity issues. The user is faced with an interface that is for them way to distracting, even though the goal is to have created a distraction free UI there are actually more distractions occurring than if the UI was static and predictable.

Please take seriously that the goal of creating a distraction free experience has done the opposite.

[duracell80]

Solution

Allow users based on a settings UI and cookie placement to disable animations transitions and improve their experience by taking away these visual distractions and make the UI move less and behave much more predictably and less overwhelming motion wise.

At least the base editor CK Editor has an inline editor that is static and does not follow the cursor.

[jbalsas]

Sounds like https://drafts.csswg.org/mediaqueries-5/#prefers-reduced-motion could be a good starting point for this, but I doubt we'll have browser support for it to be enough :(

[duracell80]

Interesting. One to watch for sure. https://css-tricks.com/introduction-reduced-motion-media-query/