Show the fullscreen button on tablet composer, when creating a topic and editing body/title of topic first

Contribute UX

AI-generated summary

bloomexperiment reports a UX issue on tablets where the fullscreen button in the topic composer disappears when the title or body field is tapped first, causing the keyboard to appear and hiding the button. Although the button reappears when the keyboard is closed, it is no longer visible after the initial tap, making it impossible to enter fullscreen mode without refreshing the page. The user argues that the fullscreen button should remain accessible even after tapping the text fields, as it is currently needed to access fullscreen mode. They note that the exit fullscreen button is already present in that area, suggesting the interface could accommodate both buttons. The issue is presented as a usability problem rather than a bug, with examples and a video demonstrating the behavior.

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Don’t know if this is a Contribute > Bug or Contribute > UX – feel free to move if needed.

Summary

When creating or editing a topic on tablet, the fullscreen button is visible when you first open the composer:

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However, I never noticed it on tablet, because this button is not visible if you happen to tap the title/body of the post first and open the keyboard:

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Steps

  1. Create a new topic on tablet (I’m on iPad Pro 10.5 inch on Safari Desktop view)
  2. Tap on the topic body or topic title field

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Expected:

You can still see the fullscreen button

Actual:

You can’t see the fullscreen button anymore. Even when you close the keyboard, it is still not there.

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IMG_81812224×1448 211 KB

Reason for Expected

I understand that the fullscreen button might be confusing as to what it means in that context. Because if you already opened the keyboard, it seems like you’re already in fullscreen mode.

But the problem with hiding the fullscreen button in this way is that if you tap the topic body/title first, you then have no way to get to fullscreen mode, other than by refreshing the page and opening the composer again.

Here is what i mean:

Ideally it would be helpful if the fullscreen button is there even when you tapped the topic title/body first.

I think it would be ok to have it in that spot. For example there’s still the exit fullscreen button in that spot, if you happen to be in fullscreen already

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