No progress indicator when sorting or limiting results page in opac

[Michele Morgan]

After searching the catalog, the user has dropdown options to change the sort of the hits, limit to titles with available items, and to group formats and editions. There is no submit or search button for these actions, simply selecting the option invokes the action. There is no progress indicator on the screen to provide feedback to the user that their request is being processed, which can cause confusion, especially when the chosen action takes a while.

The addition of a progress indicator would be helpful in providing feedback to the user that their request is being processed.

[Yamil (ysuarez)]

Thanks for bringing this up. Another issue to consider is that this style of dropdown that trigger page changes, also called jump menus, are not good for accessibility.

If you run an EG OPAC results URL through this accessibility testing site, you will get the following warning...

http://wave.webaim.org/

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- Alerts
JavaScript jump menu

- Why It Matters
A JavaScript jump menu is a select element that triggers a new web page with the onchange event handler. When navigating with the keyboard, each change in the select menu triggers a page change in some web browsers, thus making navigation very difficult.

- How to Fix It
If the onchange event handler triggers a new web page, eliminate the JavaScript jump menu and allow the user to change the select menu, then activate an adjacent button to trigger the new page.
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Just wanted to share my two cents.

[Benjamin Kalish (bkalish)]

The lack of a progress indicator is also a usability issue when submitting searches. It isn't super obvious that the search was submitted and the user may end up trying repeatedly. I miss that ugly little spinner that appeared in the old catalog when you submitted a search!