{"id":95,"date":"2016-01-03T13:00:47","date_gmt":"2016-01-03T18:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timtanhuynh.com\/ux\/?p=95"},"modified":"2021-10-14T22:10:55","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T02:10:55","slug":"os-x-finder-sidebar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/timtanhuynh.com\/ux\/fail\/os-x-finder-sidebar\/","title":{"rendered":"macOS Finder sidebar"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Context<\/h2>\n<p>A couple of weeks ago, I hid the Devices section in the Finder window without realizing it. I assumed that my Mac had stopped recognizing my external hard drive. I later realized that it was working all along. It was only hidden in the Finder sidebar. Ironically, I once worked in a technical support center for Apple, and I solved this same problem for a customer.<\/p>\n<h2>Flaws<\/h2>\n<h3>Expanded State<\/h3>\n<p>There are no icons or text to suggest that I can collapse the Devices section.<\/p>\n<figure><a href=\"\/ux\/wp-content\/uploads\/finder_sidebar_shown.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/ux\/wp-content\/uploads\/finder_sidebar_shown.jpg\" alt=\"Finder sidebar with shown section\"><\/a><figcaption>The items in the Devices section are shown by default.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Expanded Toggle<\/h3>\n<p>If I put my cursor on the Devices label&mdash;or anywhere to the right of it within the sidebar&mdash;then, the Hide label appears. To collapse the Devices section, I need to click the Hide label itself.<\/p>\n<figure><a href=\"\/ux\/wp-content\/uploads\/finder_sidebar_hide.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/ux\/wp-content\/uploads\/finder_sidebar_hide.jpg\" alt=\"Finder sidebar with Hide option\"><\/a><figcaption>The heading of the Devices section has a Hide option that is hidden until the cursor (not shown) points to it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Collapsed State<\/h3>\n<p>Apple uses the labels Hide and Show instead of, for example, Collapse and Expand. The Finder sidebar only shows the heading of a collapsed section. The items within that section are completely hidden.<\/p>\n<figure><a href=\"\/ux\/wp-content\/uploads\/finder_sidebar_hidden.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/ux\/wp-content\/uploads\/finder_sidebar_hidden.jpg\" alt=\"Finder sidebar with hidden section\"><\/a><figcaption>The items of the Devices section are completely hidden.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Collapsed Toggle<\/h3>\n<p>Like collapsing a section, I have to click a certain spot to expand a section. The clickable spot has an indicator that only appears once my cursor is already on the spot. There are no indicators that lead me to the spot in the first place.<\/p>\n<figure><a href=\"\/ux\/wp-content\/uploads\/finder_sidebar_show.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/ux\/wp-content\/uploads\/finder_sidebar_show.jpg\" alt=\"Finder sidebar with Show option\"><\/a><figcaption>Like the Hide option, the Show option is hidden until it&#8217;s found.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Fixes<\/h2>\n<p>Normally, a downward-pointing arrow implies an expanded state, and a rightward-pointing arrow implies a collapsed state. At the very least, the Hide and Show labels should always visible. They might not be close enough to the section headings for max visibility, though.<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>Toggles should be consistent in their <em>appearance<\/em> and persistent in their <em>presence<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Finder windows of macOS have sidebars that list items in logical sections. These sections can toggle between expanded and collapsed states, but the toggle triggers aren&#8217;t consistent and persistent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,13,11,9],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fail","tag-apple","tag-mac-os","tag-not-distinct","tag-ui"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/timtanhuynh.com\/ux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/timtanhuynh.com\/ux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/timtanhuynh.com\/ux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/timtanhuynh.com\/ux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/timtanhuynh.com\/ux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":45,"href":"http:\/\/timtanhuynh.com\/ux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1190,"href":"http:\/\/timtanhuynh.com\/ux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions\/1190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/timtanhuynh.com\/ux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/timtanhuynh.com\/ux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/timtanhuynh.com\/ux\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}