


While the basic sticky functionality worked well on a majority of devices, the zoom-related problems were a concern as there was very little we could do to resolve them. Sometimes the header would slowly disappear upwards on scroll when zoomed, or become misaligned after zooming and rotating, or appear slightly cropped. Our concern was that the step nav header would obscure too much of the page when zoomed, but the problems turned out to be much more varied and complicated. The most significant problems related to zooming. We found a range of different problems, some of which occurred on more than one device. We took our prototype to a nearby device lab to try to test it with as many different tablets and smartphones as possible, both old and new. Past experience had shown that sticky functionality could be unreliable on some mobile devices, either being slow to respond to scrolling events or not working altogether. While the sticky functionality didn’t prove as effective as we’d hoped, we decided that it was worth further investigation. Importantly, no obvious problems were discovered. Some noticed it and used it others didn’t appear to see it at all.

Our first test of the sticky functionality was with real users. While none of these categories had overall precedence, a significant problem in any of them could decide the outcome. In order to go ahead with sticky functionality, ideally the answer to all of these questions would be ‘yes’.

Where a content page is part of a step by step navigation, several components are included on that page. How sticky functionality could be used on GOV.UK They’re commonly used to keep key functionality always in sight, such as navigation elements or social media controls (more details on sticky functionality are given here). Sticky or fixed elements are parts of a webpage that remain in place when the page is scrolled. In GOV.UK 's Modelling Services team we looked at the possibility of using sticky functionality as part of our work with step by step navigation elements.
