Differentiate, by colour, "View" and "Seen" on the Search Results pages

[PatReynolds]

Systemwide #41 was a review of the 'go to detail' column.
It was decided that in all projects, it should be
on the left
headed 'Detail'
default text arrow, number of row and 'View'
text after viewing 'Row x and 'Seen'

Suggestion: View is white on a solid colour, and Seen is a colour on white with a boarder
(may not be accessible)

Possibly use logo colour and text colour?

@AlOneill can you advise?

[AlOneill]

Sounds like you are suggesting that "Viewed" look like a button hover state: would not be good!

[PatReynolds]

Can you remind me what the difference between a link and a visited link (visually)? Maybe that is enough. The meaning is not dependent on colour, as it is there in the text, colour just draws attention to it.

[AlOneill]

There is no visual difference between an unvisited and a visited link: has never been in the styles. There is a possible privacy issue, apparently, but would have to do some research to be sure. (Not seen as an issue by Wikipedia, for instance.)

What is wrong with simply adding the text ,"Visited", below the link, as was used on REG at some point? The text colour could be any of our colours (except the link colour for that project) that has good contrast on white — the default text colour of dark grey would stand out from the view link/button itself.

[PatReynolds]

[updating description to make following clearer]
Currently FreeCEN has a button
which does not change once the record has been viewed
and FreeREG has text

Initial proposal for FreeBMD2

The kind of thing I was thinking of:
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1newENITqAPZ7Lc8s1boXR-JRamM7XsxmS8RxTD1vy2w/edit?usp=sharing
('Seen' is meant just to be an outline line - all very crude execution, in the hope that the idea is clearer).

[AlOneill]

I seem to remember that the button was introduced on CEN because the current link colour and contrast are so poor.

The updated (accessible) colours should mean that an ordinary link will suffice.

[PatReynolds]

Agreed ... but the "button" does make it much more visible. If we stay with text, are italics and brackets to be used (as in FreeREG) - and the word 'View' until it is '(Seen)'?

[SteveBiggs]

I prefer the use of a button as per CEN as it's much more obviously an action. I don't think it's that important that it should change if the record has been viewed.

[Captainkirkdawson]

A first cut at the changes has been applied to REG on test2 for review. Only thing not done was to change to a button which requires further thought

[PatReynolds]

Working fine on test2.freereg

[Captainkirkdawson]

@AlOneill is of the opinion that the yellow background striping is the wrong colour, at least for REG.
Accessibility tests show that the view link has insufficient contrast; perhaps we should try a button?
@AlOneill also believes I have gone overboard with the ability to tab between fields in the table display.

[Captainkirkdawson]

Just to be clear I fully accept @AlOneill views noted above. I have no expertise in such matters.

[AlOneill]

I urge caution in our choice of colour for the striping: the user will get to see an awful lot of it! Whilst some people are not too bothered by colours, others are more sensitive. A grey stripe is less likely to be annoying/distracting than any actual colour. If we are to keep the row hover, then that could use a suitable colour (i.e. not greyscale), rather than the current grey.

If we use colour for the stripe (or the hover), then the most suitable is almost certain to be different for each project, because the link colours are different. And there might not be a choice, unless a button is used. Even with a button, colour choice will be limited.

We now have a style for banners and islands that uses the same grey background as for the current row hover, island--light, and that comes with built-in accessible link styling: i.e. an accessible link is perfectly possible on a light (grey) background, or on a suitable muted colour.

I have begun testing of possible colours. Will report results when available.

[Captainkirkdawson]

Removed additional tabbing; removed stripping; changed freereg detail to be at beginning of line, used a btn to pass contrast accessibility test; fixed cen controller to store viewed information so Cen now displays Seen.
Note text of Seen is black on white; this clearly contrasts with the button
Did NOT include the arrow; unsure of benefit.
Wrote story on striping #104
Applied changes to both test3 REG and CEN

[Captainkirkdawson]

@edickens @SteveBiggs could you please review this from a REG perspective

[edickens]

I've not been following this. But I like having the words (Viewed) rather than having to know that a different colour means viewed.

[AlOneill]

@Captainkirkdawson In the table head, "Details" still has tabindex="0".

Also, in the table on the search details page, tabindex="0" is set on many (all?) of the cells.

[Captainkirkdawson]

@AlOneill removed as requested

[AlOneill]

@Captainkirkdawson See message on Slack.

[Captainkirkdawson]

Completed