Last modified: 2014-05-01 17:58:33 UTC
Created attachment 13148 [details] Screenshot of collapsed state When this was in the Vector extension it was: * a blue toggle link * hovering it showed an underline * clicking it expanded it and did *not* leave the toggle link focussed This matched the user experience of the sidebar sections of the Vector skin. When this was moved in core in I91a3704cb09 this was arbitrarily changed with no rationale, thus causing an inconsistent and confusing experience. The toggle does not look like a clickable component compared to other components in the same context. It looks neither like a link nor a button in its dormant state (see attached screenshot). When clicked it also has the annoying effect of focussing the entire containing block level element for no reason (see attached screenshot).
Created attachment 13149 [details] Screenshot of expanded state
What you describe is because it doesn't use a <a>. This was stated quite plainly in the commit message; I don't know which is better practice in general terms, but while either approach can be problematic, the lack of a <a> in the editpage footer is consistent with the common (cross-skin) practice of using events without an <a> for such collapsible elements. Thus that the footer would do so as well stands to reason, as unlike the Vector-only sidebar style, this was a cross-skin change. The use of <a>s or <a>-like behaviour can be quite useful from a UX perspective, however, so you can feel free to add that yourself, but do be sure to make it work with all skins, not just Vector.
I believe that this change in behavior is an enhancement, not a regression. More than two weeks have gone by and I haven't heard a single complaint, even from usually militant en.wp people. I suggest WONTFIX. Also changing priority to lowest and severity to trivial (somebody would have fixed it already if it was really major).
As the Target Milestone on this ticket has been set to 1.22.0: According to http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2013-September/072030.html "MediaWiki 1.22 is slated for release on November 30th, at the very latest." If this is still intended to get fixed for 1.22.0, a patch is needed soon.
WONTFIX-ing, as I suggested a month ago. There were no comments since then, so I assume nobody opposes it.
@Isarra: Well, I personally don't agree. But I can see how that might make sense. However that doesn't answer the main concern I raised: It's inconsistent. It was randomly changed in 1 very specific component. Especially from a design perspective we should strive for consistency. And considering this is all part of Vector, that should be easy, it's not in a different project. If you propose changes like that, please do them in a separate change and apply them consistently at once, or not at all. I assume the rationale applies to the sidebar just as well? So both should be using <a> and styled as dark grey text color. Or both should not use <a> and naturally styled grey text color. Either way, unless you have a reason for why the sidebar should be different, please restore the style as it was in the collapsible footer, or update the other areas of Vector as well.
