Feedback on javadoc UI changes

[Hannes Wallnöfer]

Hi Stuart, thanks for addressing these finer usability issues.

Yes, the animated transitions can feel weird when triggered by a small scrolling movement. The behaviour that you prefer is called sticky positioning. I did try to use it, but wasn’t able to combine it with the requirement of making the header appear on demand (it is possible but requires quite a bit of DOM trickery). 

The take-away message is that there are people who have a strong (negative) reaction to this kind of animated transition. 

Hannes


> Am 10.10.2019 um 19:41 schrieb Stuart Marks <stuart.marks at oracle.com>:
> 
> One of the things I've always liked about javadoc is that it has the feel of a static web page. Of course, it was completely static initially. As time has gone on it's become more interactive, yet the static feeling is still there. I think this is a big advantage, because it gives me (the user) the feeling of absolute control, with nothing getting in my way. This is important when I'm looking for something, or concentrating on reading some bit of the specification. The smallest distraction is an impediment to this.
> 
> With this in mind, the animation of the top bar is anathema.
> 
> The problem here, as I see it, is that the animation of the top bar is independent of how fast or how much I've scrolled. With Version 2, for example, if I scroll down one line (one scroll wheel click), the top bar zips up and leaves a big swath of blank space. This is merely odd.
> 
> A different and bigger problem with Version 2 occurs when scrolling up in the middle of the page. Suppose I'm looking for methods in the Method Summary, which I know are in alphabetical order. I see that the method at the top of the window is just below the method I'm interested in, so I scroll the page up a few clicks. The top bar zips down and covers up what I'm looking at. I think that's a problem.
> 
> Let me suggest a variation of Version 3. Instead of the top bar animating up after you've scrolled down a few lines, the top bar should scroll up at exactly the same speed and distance as the main page, until the arrow/searchbox portion of the bar is pinned against the top. Since you can always pull it down explicitly, Version 3 lacks the zip-down misfeature I described above in Version 2. However, when you get to the top of the page in Version 3, instead of animating down, the top bar should scroll back into view at the same rate as the user is scrolling the main page.
> 
> One issue I have with Version 3 is that the top bar animates down when I simply mouse over the down-arrow. To me, things ought to move when clicked. Since I'm expecting to click, I'm likely to click the thing that ends up underneath the pointer after the animation finishes, which is the Overview link. That'll take me away from what I was looking for, a big distraction.
> 
> Once pulled down explicitly, the top bar should either scroll away at the same rate as the page, or it should stick there until pushed up with an explicit action (e.g., clicking on an up-arrow, which might replace the down-arrow). I'm not sure which is preferable.
> 
> I know that I've seen techniques on the web that are similar to what I'm talking about. I'll see if I can find a good example.
> 
> s'marks
> 
> On 10/9/19 10:29 AM, Hannes Wallnöfer wrote:
>> The javadoc team is considering changes to the UI of javadoc generated pages, specifically the behaviour of the top navigation bar and navigating to anchors within a page. Since this would affect all JDK users we thought it was a good idea to present/discuss the alternatives here on jdk-dev.
>> The feedback we are looking for:
>> - What do you prefer for scrolling up and down a page? Do you find the moving parts useful or distracting?
>> - Which version is best for navigating to an anchor within a page (e.g. member search or internal links)?
>> - Do you experience any technical problems with your particular browser?
>> Here are the three versions:
>> Version 1 is the conservative fix, it retains the fixed navigation bar, changes are mostly under the hood:
>> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~hannesw/8223378/api.00/
>> Version 2: When scrolling down, the navigation bar slides upwards and disappears. When scrolling back up or starting to type for a search, it slides back in again.
>> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~hannesw/8230852/api.04/
>> Version 3: Like version 2, but the part of the navigation bar that contains the search box and page-local links always remains visible. There’s an arrow symbol on the left to make the full navigation bar reappear.
>> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~hannesw/8230852/api.03/
>> Hannes