The Seat Navigation settings let you configure how customers navigate your Seating Plan using a keyboard when Enhanced Customer Seat Selection is enabled. By setting a tab order, you can ensure that customers who use keyboards or screen readers can move through the Seats on your Seating Plan in a logical way.
Before you read this article, make sure you're familiar with:
What is Seat Navigation?
If your Seating Plan uses Enhanced Customer Seat Selection, you can configure a Tab Order so that keyboard or screenreader users can move through Seats in a logical sequence. This means your Seating Plan meets WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility guidelines for keyboard navigation.
It’s likely that your Seating Plan will already have Seat Navigation settings configured, and you will only need to edit your settings in relation to the use of the Enhanced Customer Seat Selection Managed Component.
There are two ways you can configure the Seat Navigation settings on your Seating Plan:
You can set one Seat Navigation configuration per Seating Plan. This means that you should configure the settings to work with the layout that you use most.
Previous and Next Seats
Previous and Next Seat settings define the relationship between individual Seats on your Seating Plan for navigation purposes. Previous and next seats also influence Isolated Seat Detection and Best Available seat selection behaviour.
For example, if a Seat on the end of an aisle is considered next to a seat across the aisle, this would prevent the seat being sold in the Strict Isolated Seat detection mode.
In the image below, the green arrows show previous and next seats, while the blue arrows indicate where the next seat is across an aisle:
When a Seating Plan is uploaded to your system by Spektrix, Previous and Next seats will already be set. You won’t need to set or edit your Previous and Next seat settings unless you want to make a change.
Tab Order
The Tab Order determines the sequence in which a keyboard user will move through Seats (for example 1-10), Rows (for example A-Z) and Areas (for example, Stalls, Circle, Balcony) when pressing the Tab key.
Tab Order only affects customer experience when Enhanced Customer Seat Selection is enabled. With this feature, customers who use keyboard-only navigation (no mouse), screen readers or assistive technology can navigate through the Seating Plan.
Combining Tab Order and Previous and Next Seats
You can combine Previous and Next Seat settings alongside the Tab Order to accurately reflect the most ideal customer journey on complex Seating Plans.
For example, if you have a cabaret style layout, you can use Tab Order to process tables from top to bottom, while the Previous and Next Seats can group the seats at each table together in chains.
If a Tab Order is not set then then customers will navigate the Seating Plan in the order that is set by the Previous and Next Seat settings.
When you are configuring Tab Order, you can choose to process Areas, Rows and Seats in order of their physical position on the Seating Plan (rather than in alphabetical order). If you choose to order Seats by physical location, and you do not have Previous and Next Seats set, then each seat will be individually ordered by its physical location.
TIP: For most Seating Plans, configuring the Row order and Area order will be sufficient. You only need to manually set previous and next Seats for complex or unusual layouts where the automatic ordering doesn't produce a logical path.
How to edit Seat Navigation Settings
The Seat Navigation tab can be found in the Admin Interface > Seating > choose the Seating Plan you want to configure > click on the Seat Navigation tab.
TIP: To access the Admin Interface, you'll need the General Administrator Role. If you don't have this Role, ask the Settings Administrator in your organisation to add this Role to your User Account.
In the Seat Navigation tab, you can see a visual indication of your Previous and Next seats. This visual indication is not visible to customers or anywhere else within Spektrix.
How to edit Previous and Next Seats
Your Seating Plan will likely already have a Previous and Next Seat configuration which is established when your Seating Plan is initially uploaded. You won’t need to set or edit your Previous and Next seat settings unless you want to make a change.
You can edit Previous and Next Seat settings in the following ways:
- Auto Assign: Click the auto assign button if you want to automatically assign the relationship between the seats on your Seating Plan.
- Amend individual seat relationships: Click on an individual seat to change the Previous/Next Seat settings. You can manually enter the Seat Number of the previous or next seat. Check the Cross Aisle box to indicate where seats cross over an aisle.
Once settings have been configured, navigation arrows will display to reflect your changes.
How to configure Tab Order
Click the Tab Ordering button to apply the following settings:
- Row Order controls the sequence in which rows are navigated through. For example, A - Z.
- Area Order lets you set the order in which customers navigate between Areas. For example, Stalls, Circle, Balcony. Area Order is only relevant for Seating Plans with multiple Areas.
- Chain Direction: Seat Chains are groups of Seats connected by Previous and Next Seat relationships. Chain Direction controls the direction in which manually configured Seat Chains are processed, based on Previous and Next seat relationships.
Throughout Tab Order configuration, the top left corner of your Seating Plan is 0X, 0Y.
Row Order
To set the Row Order, select the option which best applies to your Seating Plan from the dropdown:
| Option | Description | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| A-Z (Alphabetical) |
Rows sorted alphabetically by row label (A, then B, then C…). In a typical alphabetical plan, where the stage is at the top, this would take a keyboard user from the front of the venue (closest to the stage) toward the back. |
When Row A is the first row a customer would interact with, and you don’t have rows such as AA, BB, CC. |
| Z-A (Reverse Alphabetical) | Rows sorted in reverse alphabetical order (Z first, then Y, then X...). | When Row Z is the first row a customer would interact with, and you don’t have rows such as AA, BB, CC… |
| Left to Right (X Ascending) |
Rows sorted by the physical position of their leftmost seat, from left to right. The row with the lowest X coordinate is first, then the next lowest, and so on. |
When the stage is to the left of the seats. Useful when row labels don't correspond to physical left/right position. This is useful for venues with side-by-side seating areas (e.g. Left Stalls, Right Stalls) where you want keyboard users to navigate from the left section first. |
| Right to Left (X Descending) |
Rows sorted by physical position of their rightmost seat, right to left. The row with the highest X coordinate is first, then the next highest, and so on. |
When the stage is to the right of the seats. Useful when row labels don't correspond to physical left/right position. This is useful for venues with side-by-side seating areas where you want keyboard users to navigate from the right section first. |
| Top to Bottom (Y Ascending) |
Rows sorted by physical position of their top most seat, from top to bottom. The row with the lowest Y coordinate is focused first, then the next lowest, and so on. |
Similar to A-Z, but enables navigation through AA, BB style row labels. This is useful when the stage is at the bottom of the Seating Plan image and you want to order seats from furthest away first regardless of alphabetical order. |
| Bottom to Top (Y Descending) |
Rows sorted by physical position of their bottommost seat, from bottom to top. The row with the highest Y coordinate is focused first, then the next highest, and so on. |
Similar to Z-A, but enables navigation through AA, BB style row labels. This is useful when the stage is at the top of the Seating Plan image and you want to order rows from furthest away first regardless of alphabetical order. |
Area Order
Area Order is only applied when Row Order is set to A-Z or Z-A (alphabetical). If you choose a spatial Row Order (Left to Right, Right to Left, Top to Bottom, or Bottom to Top), the same spatial direction is automatically used to sequence Areas as well.
To set the Area Order, select the option which best applies to your Seating Plan from the dropdown:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Left to Right | Areas processed left to right by physical position on the plan |
| Right to Left | Areas processed right to left by physical position on the plan |
| Top to Bottom | Areas processed top to bottom by physical position on the plan |
| Bottom to Top | Areas processed bottom to top by physical position on the plan |
Chain Direction
Seat Chains are the relationship between each previous and next Seat.
Chain Direction controls the direction in which manually configured Seat Chains are processed, based on Previous and Next seat relationships. Chain Direction will not apply unless Previous and Next Seats are set on your plan.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Standard (default) | Customers navigate through seats from the first seat which has no previous seat through to the last seat which has no next. |
| Reverse |
The opposite of the standard chain direction. Customers navigate through seats from the last seat which has no next seat through to the first seat which has no previous. When to use Reverse: If the natural direction of your chains runs right-to-left but you want tab order to go left-to-right, Reverse allows you to flip the direction without having to reconfigure the chains themselves. |
Once completed, click Save to confirm your settings.
Troubleshooting
For Seating Plans where navigation options may be unclear, or where existing functionality doesn't provide accurate navigation for your customers, it may be possible to utilise previous/next seats to create longer chains of seats. In this case, reach out to our Support team who can assist.