Description
One of the things we asked the community about during testing was whether sub-sections should be shown or hidden by default within the table of contents. Preferences varied, and were somewhat dependent on which article someone is looking at (which led to T300973). A related request that came up, for the case where sub-sections are hidden — a button at the top of the ToC would show/expand all sub-sections within the ToC. This would allow people to easily make the ToC fully expanded (rather than having to expand section-by-section).
Here is a video of how that could look:
Testing
We ran two basic tests on usertesting.com, with 5 participants in each test:
Test 1) In the first test people were taken to several articles and asked to navigate to particular sections and sub-sections using the table of contents.
Test 2) In the second test people were asked about their expectations regarding what clicking on certain items within the table of contents would do. They were then asked to explore clicking the various buttons. Then finally they were taken to several articles and asked to navigate to particular sections and sub-sections using the table of contents.
the key difference between the two tests was that they participants in Test 2 were made aware of the "show/hide all sub-sections" button up-front (i.e. before the "tasks" began).
Findings
Test 1) all 5 participants were able to easily use the table of contents to navigate to the requested sections & sub-sections (either by clicking on the section heading, or using the section toggle to expand it then clicking on the sub-section).
Test 2)
- all 5 participants correctly guessed what clicking on a section title, and what clicking on a section toggle would do
- None of the 5 participants correctly guessed what clicking on the hide/show all sub-sections button would do
- During the section & sub-section navigation tasks the participants used a mix of the hide/show all button, and the individual section toggle buttons, to discover the requested sub-sections
- All 5 participants responded that they liked the hide/show all button
Conclusion
- The hide/show all button does not seem necessary for being able to find a given sub-section
- The hide/show all button is not discoverable, or clear, in its current form
- People use the hide/show all button once they know about it, though it doesn't necessarily help them navigate more quickly
As @RHo mentioned there may be a need/desire around using the table of contents as a map to get a sense of the article, and wanting a more detailed map (so to speak) by showing all sub-sections. This seems like a worthwhile need/desire to test, though I'm not yet sure how we could test that.