Hello.

I am Paul Kinlan.

A Developer Advocate for Chrome and the Open Web at Google.

I love the web. The web should allow anyone to access any experience that they need without the need for native install or content walled garden.

Another experiment in creating a mobile friendly table of contents

Paul Kinlan

I've been working on making html5rocks.com more mobile-friendly, focusing on reducing "Time to first read". The main culprit was the Table of Contents (ToC). My initial experiment with an offscreen ToC using CSS had cross-browser inconsistencies. Now, using existing JS, the ToC is fixed to the footer and toggled into view. I'm still exploring pure CSS solutions. Initially, I favored a small scrollable ToC at the bottom, but Paul Lewis suggested a full-screen ToC, which proved better. It minimizes distractions and clutter, provides more screen space for a readable, easily navigable ToC with larger touch targets and subtle hierarchy, even for long lists. The before/after screenshots demonstrate the improvement.

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Experiments in buildinig a mobile friendly table of contents

Paul Kinlan

I'm experimenting with mobile-friendly table of contents designs for HTML5Rocks. The current ToC takes up too much screen space, hindering access to content. My goal is to improve user experience by getting readers to the content faster. My "Bottom ToC" experiment anchors the ToC to the bottom, expanding on tap and collapsing when the main content is tapped. It uses position: fixed and the :active pseudo-class, requiring no JavaScript and keeping the rendered HTML consistent between desktop and mobile. Though it has minor scrolling issues, it effectively minimizes initial ToC screen coverage while remaining accessible.

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