When a clue in the list is selected, it is read out and instructions on how to input an answer are given.We also took care to add extra information for screen readers: This new feature ensures the accessibility of the crossword, where keyboard navigation and interaction focus on the list itself without the need for the grid (but still there as an alternative visual display). The "Force-Compact" demo is available online and demonstrated below.įrom an accessibility standpoint, it is also a benefit. Otherwise, a clue is only revealed when a word location is selected in the grid. Focusing on the list, one of our first explorations was to create a minimised list, with a "scroll-and-zoom" effect to reaveal the clues. More than on the crossword grid alone, we felt the area for experimentation and innovation must be the clue list itself. The real head-scratcher with this experiment was to find a way to create an effective and enjoyable experience on all kinds of devices. If some crossword apps are still built in Flash, in the day of responsive web apps, that simply wouldn't cut it for us. Novelty for all A cross-platform feature: the list view (Note, however, that we are not validating the answers, as the FT crossword involves prizes and the answers are published at a later date).Īnd, to make up for the delay, this new interactive crossword comes with additional features that we think cruciverbalists might find useful and/or interesting. It comes with all the usual features: selecting the clue and highlighting the relevant position in the grid, selecting a cell and highlighting the corresponding clue, saving the answers of a crossword in progress. It has been a long time coming, but we now have an interactive version too. Ever since receiving complaints for the lack of crossword on the site, the FT has provided PDF versions of its daily grid. We concur with the above the feeling for crosswords seems to be universal. Make a mistake, leave them out of the paper for a day, and the telephone wouldn’t stop ringing. It was always astonishing to me as a newspaper editor how much readers cared about their puzzles. Crosswords are important to some readers and are even the main feature of one of the New York Times' subscription tiers (What a turnaround when you know that, in 1924, they deemed it a "sinful waste in the utterly futile finding of words" * !) *Source: Crossword - WikipediaįT Labs have been working on a custom interactive crossword component with all the features you would expect and more, giving a particular focus to the clue list, for a better cross-device experience and improved overall accessibility. There is a push towards interactive (admittedly of varying quality). Online, there is almost a duty for news publishers to offer an interactive version of their games page. When computers came along, it would only be a matter of time before crosswords joined the pool of digital pastimes, up there with Minesweeper or Spider Solitaire. Crosswords have been around for over a hundred years, and the source of vehement opinions from the very start.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |