Focus Order configuration tool needs work
Apr 23, 2021
By
Sam Hill
I think we've all be putting up with the pain of using the Focus Order configuration tool for way too long. I've probably added it as a feature request a couple of times.
I think this tool could become much better if the following are considered:
- When customising the Focus Order, it would be great if we could select multiple items at once, and move them around as a group At the moment we can only select one item at a time. It's a tedious task.
- When you have several items in the Focus Order tool, and have to move an items so much that the Focus Order tool has to scroll, the scroll is really really slow. There seems to be a performance issue with the scroll. I've sometimes resorted to flipping my screen to portrait mode so I don't have to scroll as much when working on modules and fixing accessibility.
- It would be great if we could define groups of elements where the order cannot be changed. For example, in my Template, I could define a header group which would contain a heading, navigation etc, and once I have defined the order within that group, it is locked in that order within that group. The same could go for a footer.
- Building on the point above about a header and footer, it would be great if we could specify that this group of elements are always at the top of the document, and this group of elements are always at the bottom of the document. Which can then sort out everything in between on a per slide basis.
Part of making courses accessible includes making the tools for accessibility as easy to use as possible. There've been some great improvements in accessibility recently in the SL products, especially the semantic mark-up that is now output. If the Focus Order tool could get some attention as it has a big impact on development.
7 Replies
Agree with you re physical pain, I was going to write this, so I'm glad you mentioned it. The Focus Order tool does need frequent breaks if working with it over an extended period.
I think this is a tool where they really need to consult with their users to re-design ux.
I agree. I was just searching for a way to make this process less tedious. For some reason all my layers are listed first with the base layer listed last, so I have to move things for EVERY slide and often if I could select multiple items and grab them by the layer or the group or shift click to select a bunch it would be so much easier.
I MUST make my training accessible. Please update the accessibility options overall.
Hello Kate!
We've heard from others as well how this is a tedious process so it is being looked at by the Engineering team. Sorry you're dealing with this as well! I don't have an ETA to share since this is just in the beginning stages but if I have an update to share, I'll be sure to share in this discussion.
Thank you! Anything you can do to make the courses more accessibility friendly will help anyone that is creating things for the government or with Federal money as that content will always need to be accessible.
I posted something similar a while back in the beta forum, agree with all of this completely.
MAtt I feel your pain, I have carpal tunnel in my left hand, not stopping me work but is stopping me do martial arts training, actually all training as cannot support my weight for press-ups either, we have been the guinea pigs of poor UX
Hi, everyone.
I have great news to share!
We just released another update for Storyline 360. In Update 63, we’ve included important fixes, new features, and enhancements.
One of the enhancements we’ve included is:
Customize the accessibility focus order faster. Select multiple objects, then move or remove them all at once.
For additional information, check out this article!
To take advantage of this update, launch the Articulate 360 desktop app on your computer and click the Update button next to Storyline 360. You'll find our step-by-step instructions here.
Please let us know if you have any questions by reaching out to our Support Engineers directly.
Yeeees!!!!!!