NAV5. Difficulty navigating to a search result section

Definition

A situation that arises from difficulty navigating to the search results section due to inadequate mobile navigation related design elements (text with tooltip) An element that defines how content is displayed in a web browser, such as heading and label.  and unintuitive structure.

Factors Leading to the Situation

  • Complex information presentation: illogical structure (text with tooltip) A structure of a digital library (DL) that does not present page elements in a logical way.
  • Complex information presentation: insufficient heading or navigation aids (text with tooltip) A feature that offers essential support for screen-reader users to understand the structure of a web document.

Guidelines

  1. Provide clear and descriptive design elements (text with tooltip) An element that defines how content is displayed in a web browser, such as heading and label.  that support mobile navigation to a search result section.
  2. Ensure a simplified path to the search results.

Rationale for Suggesting the above Guidelines       

DLs (text with tooltip) The acronym for digital library (DL) have complex structures with various collections, which creates a challenging environment for BVI (text with tooltip) The acronym for Blind and Visually Impaired. It refers to BVI users who rely on screen readers to interact with digital libraries (DLs).  users to locate search results and understand available resources. Descriptive headings give users a clearer understanding of the page structure and organization, simplifying the process of locating the search results section. Moreover, the “Tab” function, commonly used on desktops to navigate between focusable elements, may not display in the same order in mobile environments as in desktop environments. Therefore, a more thoughtful design structure is necessary to provide accessible and effective navigation sequences for BVI users on mobile devices. Structuring search results and their sections with headings enables users to navigate them easily without needing to adjust their rotors to a different setting.

Techniques and Methods to Comply with a Specific Design Guideline

1.1. Organize DL pages using headings for section titles.
1.2. Include clear labels and descriptive information in headings (e.g., levels and numbers) illustrating information hierarchy within the page.
2.1. Create “skip to” search results feature.
2.2. Use aria-labels (text with tooltip) An HTML attribute that provides a text label for an object, such as a button.  and aria-describedby to provide a summary of search results and associated information about format

Features Suggested for Users

1.1.1./1.2.1. Headings (See example 1.1.1.a./1.2.1.a.)
1.2.1. Labels and information
2.1.1. “Skip to”
2.2.1. Search results summary

Examples of Best Practice

Using Headings for section titles enables BVI (text with tooltip) The acronym for Blind and Visually Impaired. It refers to BVI users who rely on screen readers to interact with digital libraries (DLs).  users to better understand and navigate the page (NAV5 Figure a1).

Library search page for “Generative AI”. Left shows navigation categories; center and right display search results with headings and item counts
NAV5 Figure a1. An example of headings for search result list

Examples of Poor Practice

1.1.1.b1. Difficulty navigating to a search result section

As indicated in NAV5 Figure b1, when the participant was using headings to navigate the search result page, the screen reader focus would jump to ‘result: 1-10’, ‘Digital Collection’, and ‘refine your results’ in a page, while failing to navigate the search result section due to lack of headings for search results.

“And yeah, I’m exploring by headings. Uh. Cause like I know, usually there’s like a bunch of like. Headings and stuff and so I’m trying to find the results that I searched for [When moving by heading the participant move to ‘result: 1-10’ then’ Digital Collection’ to ‘refine your results’]…. Oh, here you go, military battles and campaigns.” (AP9-LA)

A search results page in a digital library with many headings, which challenges users in understanding the page layout
NAV5 Figure b1. Screenshot of difficulty navigating to a search result section

1.1.1.b2.  Difficulty navigating to a search result section

As shown in NAV5 Figure b2, the s creen reader (text with tooltip) A software program that reads textual information through synthesized speech and offers specialized keyboard commands to operate a computer interface.  focus jumps to “Result” to “Public collection” which leads to the participant’s confusion in navigaing to the search results. The participants were not able to recognize where the results were located and misunderstood the structure of the overall page.

“I’m going to heading under my heading and I’m gonna. OK, OK. So it gave me. OK so. … No, that one that go now or on the first result page, I public and the core content look and see now this quit on me. Uh. OK. And then ohh. Umm, just quit. OK. OK, sorry I no. OK, public collections something right here because this doesn’t get me to the top where I wanna go.” (AP7-LA)

This image highlights the difficulty of understanding a search results page by a user due to overwhelming unstructured headings.

NAV5 Figure b2. Screenshot of difficulty navigating to a search result section

Resources

  • Prakash, Y., Nayak, A. K., Sunkara, M., Jayarathna, S., Lee, H. N., & Ashok, V. (2024). All in one place: Ensuring usable access to online shopping items for blind users. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 8(EICS), 1-25.
  • Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). (2017). Headings.

See also: