The Solution: Enabling Keyboard Navigation and Customizing the Dropdown
To address this issue, we'll use jQuery to create a custom variation dropdown with keyboard navigation support and the ability to customize the appearance to match your website's design.
Here's the step-by-step process:
- Add the Quantity Spinner and Dropdown Functionality
First, let's add a quantity spinner and dropdown functionality to the variation dropdown. This will allow users to easily adjust the quantity and select the desired variation using their keyboard.
jQuery('<div class="quantity-nav"><div class="quantity-button quantity-up">+</div><div class="quantity-button quantity-down">-</div></div>').insertAfter('.quantity input');
jQuery('.quantity').each(function() {
var spinner = jQuery(this),
input = spinner.find('input[type="number"]'),
btnUp = spinner.find('.quantity-up'),
btnDown = spinner.find('.quantity-down'),
min = input.attr('min'),
max = input.attr('max');
btnUp.click(function() {
var oldValue = parseFloat(input.val());
if (oldValue >= max) {
var newVal = oldValue;
} else {
var newVal = oldValue + 1;
}
spinner.find("input").val(newVal);
spinner.find("input").trigger("change");
});
btnDown.click(function() {
var oldValue = parseFloat(input.val());
if (oldValue <= min) {
var newVal = oldValue;
} else {
var newVal = oldValue - 1;
}
spinner.find("input").val(newVal);
spinner.find("input").trigger("change");
});
});
- Style the Quantity Spinner and Dropdown
Next, let's add some CSS to style the quantity spinner and dropdown:
.quantity {
position: relative;
}
input[type=number]::-webkit-inner-spin-button,
input[type=number]::-webkit-outer-spin-button {
-webkit-appearance: none;
margin: 0;
}
input[type=number] {
-moz-appearance: textfield;
}
.quantity input {
width: 45px;
height: 42px;
line-height: 1.65;
float: left;
display: block;
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
padding-left: 20px;
border: 1px solid #eee;
}
.quantity input:focus {
outline: 0;
}
.quantity-nav {
float: left;
position: relative;
height: 42px;
}
.quantity-button {
position: relative;
cursor: pointer;
border-left: 1px solid #eee;
width: 20px;
text-align: center;
color: #333;
font-size: 13px;
font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Helvetica, sans-serif !important;
line-height: 1.7;
-webkit-transform: translateX(-100%);
transform: translateX(-100%);
-webkit-user-select: none;
-moz-user-select: none;
-ms-user-select: none;
-o-user-select: none;
user-select: none;
}
.quantity-button.quantity-up {
position: absolute;
height: 50%;
top: 0;
border-bottom: 1px solid #eee;
}
.quantity-button.quantity-down {
position: absolute;
bottom: -1px;
height: 50%;
}
- Enable Keyboard Navigation for the Variation Dropdown
Now, let's tackle the main issue – enabling keyboard navigation for the variation dropdown. We'll use jQuery to capture the keydown events and update the selected option accordingly.
jQuery(document).ready(function() {
jQuery('.variations select').each(function() {
var $select = jQuery(this);
var $options = $select.find('option');
$select.on('keydown', function(e) {
switch (e.which) {
case 38: // up arrow
var prevIndex = Math.max($select[0].selectedIndex - 1, 0);
$select[0].selectedIndex = prevIndex;
$select.trigger('change');
break;
case 40: // down arrow
var nextIndex = Math.min($select[0].selectedIndex + 1, $options.length - 1);
$select[0].selectedIndex = nextIndex;
$select.trigger('change');
break;
}
});
});
});
This code adds event listeners to each variation dropdown, and when the user presses the up or down arrow keys, it updates the selected option and triggers the change
event, which will update the product information accordingly.
- Customize the Variation Dropdown's Appearance
Finally, you can further customize the appearance of the variation dropdown to match your website's branding. You can modify the CSS styles provided earlier to change the colors, fonts, and other visual elements of the dropdown.
Here's an example of how you can change the dropdown's background color and text color:
.variations select {
background-color: #f5f5f5;
color: #333;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
padding: 8px 12px;
font-size: 16px;
}
.variations select:focus {
outline: none;
border-color: #66afe9;
box-shadow: 0 0 8px rgba(102, 175, 233, 0.6);
}
By implementing these steps, you'll have a custom variation dropdown with keyboard navigation and a visually appealing design that aligns with your website's branding. This will provide your customers with a seamless and accessible shopping experience, ultimately improving your store's overall usability and conversion rates.
Remember, the key to a successful ecommerce website is to constantly optimize the user experience. By addressing issues like the lack of keyboard navigation in the variation dropdown, you're taking a step in the right direction to ensure your customers can easily find and purchase the products they're looking for.
If you're interested in taking your website's user experience to the next level, consider exploring Flowpoint.ai, a web analytics platform that uses AI to identify technical, UX, and content-related issues impacting your conversion rates, and provide actionable recommendations to fix them