The content length message was making the page jumpy and causing reflows
in three ways. This commit addresses each of those ways:
As the user scrolled
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The footer went from fixed to sticky and the spacing around the message
changed. This change in spacing was needed so that the message looked
right in both contexts.
I think the best way to resolve this is to not use the sticky footer
when editing text message or broadcast templates.
On my 1440×900 screen I can fit a 5 fragment text message, plus the
‘will be charged as 5 text messages’ message, plus the save button.
Our top 10 screen resolutions according to our analytics are:
Position | Resolution | Percentage of users
---------|------------|--------------------
1 | 1920x1080 | 27.37%
2 | 1280×720 | 11.07%
3 | 1366×768 | 8.88%
4 | 1536×864 | 5.79%
5 | 1440×900 | 4.52%
6 | 1600×900 | 3.71%
7 | 1280×1024 | 3.10%
8 | 1680×1050 | 2.42%
9 | 1920×1200 | 2.33%
10 | 2560×1440 | 1.99%
When the page first loaded
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The message is empty so takes up no space, then the javascript fires
and inserts the message, taking up a line of space.
This is resolved by making the empty message take up space with a
non-breaking space character.
When the user first typed
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We previously didn’t show any message until the user started typing.
This meant that, with the above fix, there was a larger than normal
empty space between the textarea and the save button.
This is resolved by always showing the message, even when the user
hasn’t typed anything yet.
***
These are design decisions which made sense when the message was
displayed along side the button, but we’ve had to change now that the
message is above the button.
We feel that this is more appropriate because it’s part of the
information you’re agreeing to before you hit submit.
Sometimes users can missing information that doesn’t start left-aligned
to the column they’re interacting with.
It also makes it closer to the Design System component.
We’re keeping it in the sticky footer, so that it’s always visible no
matter where in the message you’re scrolled to (this means you won’t
have to edited to content then scroll down to check whether you’ve
made it fit).
This looks tidy, and because of the sticky footer it means the message
is always visible, even if your template is quite long. So no matter
where you’re scrolled to in the template you don’t have to scroll to the
bottom to see the count update.
Since the focus background colour is now Design System yellow, the text
should be black for sufficent contrast.
This wasn’t happening because the `:link` selector’s definition had
greater specificity.
Replaced `$gutter` and similar variables such as `$gutter-half` with the
`govuk-spacing()` static spacing function. This uses `govuk-spacing()`
instead of `$govuk-gutter` because `$govuk-gutter` should only be used
for the gaps in between grid columns and we were mostly using `$gutter`
to add more space around elements.
There are other places in the SCSS files where we had hardcoded a
measurement in px which could be replaced with `govuk-spacing`, but this
commit only replaces the existing uses of `$gutter`.
Because some people don’t know they can put their own logo on letters:
> The HM Government Logo is at the top of the letter and we can't see
> a way of putting the [organisation] logo on
> We are intending to use the letter template feature for the first time
> and wondered whether the branding is configurable or whether the HM
> Government header is the standard default.
> Can we replace HM Government logo with our own in the letter? IF yes,
> then how?
> I don't seem to be able to set the branding on the letters to be
> [organisation]. it's always HM government. Is there something that
> needs enabling for this account?
No-one actually wants the HM Government logo (no-one is sending real
letters using it). So we should leave the space blank and put a button
there prompting people to add their own logo.
The contact block fills from the bottom upwards. So if it only has a few
lines then the ‘Edit’ link button sits quite far away from where the
text appears in the letter. This commit moves the link button to bottom
align with the contact block, so it’s always in close visual proximity.
Previously they were relative (ie percentages). This made sure that they
worked on mobile, when the letter might be narrower.
However it broke when the preview was more than one page, because
13% of the height of 2 pages is different to 13% of the height of one
pages.
This commit changes the positions to be pixel values, which match the
calculated percentage values when the preview is one page.
Not sure how these got out of line (maybe when we brought the date into
the left-hand text area). But this commit updates the percentages to
match the comments.
This is so it’s clear from the position of the link which part of the
letter you’re editing.
Letter templates have (or will have) multiple different editable
regions. I think that the most intuitive way for this to work is to have
- an edit link for each of these areas
- positioned next to the thing to be edited
Again, this isn’t fully hooked up, but since no-one is using letters
live yet this is a good way of getting research feedback and pointing
towards where we want the feature to go.
Uses percentages for the positioning so that the alignment is maintained
on mobile.
