Develop example of non-modal dialog design pattern

[patrickhlauke]

Reviving this topic, as now that the APG has been reorganised, information about non-modial dialogs seems to have practically disappeared. I only see this "in passing" mention in https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/patterns/dialogmodal/

Like non-modal dialogs, modal dialogs contain their tab sequence. That is, Tab and Shift + Tab do not move focus outside the dialog. However, unlike most non-modal dialogs, modal dialogs do not provide means for moving keyboard focus outside the dialog window without closing the dialog.

But of course, this makes little sense since nowhere else is there a mention of non-modal dialogs, unless I missed it.

Related:

https://github.com/w3c/aria-practices/issues/59 https://github.com/w3c/aria-practices/issues/599 https://github.com/w3c/aria-practices/issues/1021

[patrickhlauke]

information about non-modial dialogs seems to have practically disappeared

correction, I just refreshed my memory looking over https://github.com/w3c/aria-practices/issues/599 and it seems that "in passing" mention was also all we got previously. but because it was all in the same document, at least it was a bit more "immediate" to find

[patrickhlauke]

as I was spitballing some ideas on twitter recently:

• most floating action button (FAB) scenarios would be a natural fit for this pattern (if it existed) (see comment I left on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXopH5t2Kww&lc=UgwckhwUZGZAa3W8KMV4AaABAg)
• those floating "chat" widgets on pages

[aardrian]

@patrickhlauke what do you think about those toast-like messages that also contain interactive bits (more than a dismiss)? This is in my head because I run into projects (which is why I cannot link a pattern) where the team wants to extend existing toast patterns but does not want to use a dialog, resulting in problematic UIs for users.

[patrickhlauke]

@aardrian possibly, yes? but then you get into weird situation where you probably want to shift focus to this message, and even if implemented as a true non-modal dialog, you're cycling focus inside it until the user bails out to the main document with Ctrl+F6. so for keyboard/AT users it'll feel pretty much like a modal, and only for mouse/pointer users it won't. but sure, it's definitely another option, just wondering if it will unblock the client's reluctance to real modal dialogs

[nedredmond]

Here's a practical example @patrickhlauke, though domain-specific to ed tech: a draggable calculator widget over math practice exercises.

I'm working on improving the experience of that exact thing at my ed tech organization and find that there is no consensus on how a non-modal dialog is supposed to work, or what should be the standard hotkey for exiting one. Looks like the jury has been out for many years.

[patrickhlauke]

@nedredmond ah yes, good example. I think in general, most people here are agreed that there are good/valid use cases...it's now a case though of somebody actually putting "pen to paper" so to speak and submitting an actual working demo example for APG to at least have ONE "authoritative" (for how much APG is indeed authoritative) implementation to be able to point to

[nedredmond]

Just throwing out another that is more widely applicable-- corner chat widget, such as with customer service or bot

EDIT:Oh, looks like @patrickhlauke mentioned this 2 years ago... Well, say I wanted to put "pen to paper". Is there any documentation or guidelines on what I need to have in place to be successful?

[patrickhlauke]

8 years later, and we're still in need of a good/representative example in the APG for this