Small mobile controls
Silktide loads each page on a simulated mobile device and reports links, buttons, and form controls that are too small to reliably tap. Controls must be at least 12 pixels wide and 12 pixels tall to pass.
Why this matters
Fingers are less precise than mouse pointers. A control that is easy to click on desktop can be nearly impossible to tap on a phone - visitors miss, hit the neighboring link instead, and end up somewhere they did not intend. People with motor impairments, tremors, or larger fingers are affected most, but everyone mistaps tiny targets.
The 12 pixel threshold catches only the severely undersized controls; comfortable tap targets are considerably larger (common guidance suggests around 44 pixels).
How to fix it
- Increase the size of the flagged control - larger text, more padding, or an explicit minimum size in :
/* Give tap targets a comfortable minimum size */
a.icon-button {
min-width: 44px;
min-height: 44px;
}
- For icon-only links, make the tappable area larger than the icon itself with padding, rather than enlarging the icon.
- If an element should not be interactive at all - such as an empty leftover link - remove it instead of resizing it.
How Silktide tests this
- Load the page on a simulated mobile device.
- Find every interactive control: links, image-map areas, form inputs, drop-down menus, text areas, and buttons.
- Skip controls that are hidden when the page loads, have no size, or sit entirely off screen.
- Measure each remaining control and report those narrower or shorter than 12 pixels.
Troubleshooting
The element only appears after interaction
Silktide measures the page as it loads. Controls inside menus or panels that open later are measured in their initial state, which can occasionally flag an element mid-animation. If the control is a comfortable size when actually usable, the finding.
How does this relate to the WCAG target size rules?
This check is a mobile-usability check with a deliberately lenient threshold. The related checks - Target size at Level AA and Reasonable target size at - apply stricter size requirements with more nuanced exceptions.