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When you create a new question, related questions takes up space and this pushes the content of the page downward. For keyboard only users like myself, and for my screen size ... this causes the Tags area to move downward as well. This is not a problem in itself, except that when I get into the Tags field, the "dropdown" assumes always that it should dropdown and the contents appear offscreen.

One way to resolve this would be to make the dropdown drop up if it is determined clipping would occur. It is possible with Javascript to calculate this (see Prototip 2 - Create beautiful tooltips with ease | nickstakenburg.com Viewport demo).

Another potential resolution would be to scroll the page on entry into the Tags field to ensure that some of the dropdown contents appear.

Another solution would be to give the Tags presence higher up on the page.

UPDATE: You could simply reproduce this by resizing the window so that Tags field is visible but nothing below it. Then start typing a tag in the field itself. Since it drops down, it is invivisible. On the surface this would seem expected, except that the page itself is chewing up real estate for related questions causing everything to be pushed downard.

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    Could we see a screenshot of this behavior?
    – jjnguy
    Commented Mar 3, 2010 at 19:32
  • Freehand circles would be so much more delightful.
    – Ether
    Commented Mar 4, 2010 at 21:07

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It makes sense, at least. The internet has trained people that the tab key that it simply moves the selection cursor, not the page (unless the next element to tab to is off-page, which it will only scroll down until you can see the input).

Very few web applications will center or move the current working element, at least, none that I've seen. Having consistency on the site is key to usability. I agree that it might make sense to have a little working space after you've tabbed to an element, but this is an (unofficial) browser standard that people have gotten used to.

Then there's the fact that the vast majority of users will either have optimal screen resolutions, or simply scroll down with the mouse, making this a non-issue.

I don't think moving the tags higher is a good idea. The "Ask Question" layout is intuitive -- you summarize your issue (title), you detail your issue (post), and then you use the above information to look for key words and categorize your question (tags).

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And this is different from every other website on the planet .. how? :)

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    Denial isn't an answer. It's because the site pushes everything downscreen that it's a real problem.
    – Nissan Fan
    Commented Mar 4, 2010 at 22:22

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