Creative Elements 2.14 : A Giant Leap for Accessibility & Performance

Creative Elements 2.14: A Giant Leap for Accessibility & Performance

In the rapidly evolving landscape of e-commerce, two factors are currently dominating the conversation: Inclusivity and Speed. With the European Accessibility Act (EAA) on the horizon and Google’s Core Web Vitals becoming stricter, your shop needs to be more than just visually stunning—it needs to be usable by everyone and load faster than ever before.

With the release of Creative Elements v2.14, we are bringing you a massive update that tackles these challenges head-on. This isn't just a maintenance patch; we have rewritten core parts of the module’s architecture to optimize accessibility (a11y) and significantly reduce code bloat for superior performance.

Here is a deep dive into what makes v2.14 a game-changer for your PrestaShop store.

The Accessibility Overhaul

Accessibility is no longer a "nice-to-have" feature; it is a necessity. Making your shop accessible means ensuring that people with disabilities—whether they use screen readers, keyboard navigation, or have visual impairments—can browse, understand, and buy from you.

In v2.14, we performed a deep audit of our elements and components. We improved keyboard navigation (tabbing through the site) and optimized ARIA roles across the board.

Here is what’s new regarding inclusivity:

  • New Widget: Skip Links: This is a major addition for keyboard navigation. We’ve introduced a dedicated Skip Links widget that allows users navigating via keyboard to "jump" past repetitive header menus directly to the main content. This is a critical requirement for high-level accessibility compliance (WCAG), ensuring users don't have to press "Tab" fifty times just to reach your products.
  • Smarter Screen Reader Behavior: We have refined the code to ensure screen readers focus on what matters. Purely decorative elements—like Shape Dividers or Background Videos—have been removed from the "accessibility tree." This reduces noise for blind users, allowing them to focus on your content without distraction.
  • Semantic Improvements: We’ve optimized ARIA roles and attributes across almost all elements. Whether it’s a search bar, a cart modal, or a simple button, the code now communicates its purpose more clearly to assistive technologies.
New Widget: Skip Links

Building Accessibly: A Shared Responsibility

While Creative Elements v2.14 provides the technical foundation for an accessible website, the final result depends on how you build your content. Accessibility is a partnership between the tool and the creator.

As you design your next landing page or product layout, keep these best practices in mind:

  • Master the Heading Structure: A common mistake is using an H1 tag just because you want big text. This confuses search engines and screen readers. Always use headings logically (H1 for the page title, H2 for major sections, H3 for sub-sections).
  • Mind the Contrast: When designing call-to-action buttons or text overlays, ensure there is sufficient contrast between the text and the background. Low contrast text is difficult for everyone to read, especially on mobile screens in bright sunlight.
  • Descriptive Links: Avoid using generic text like "Click Here." Instead, use descriptive text like "View Product Details" or "Contact Support." This helps screen reader users understand exactly where a link goes without needing surrounding context.
  • Fill out your Alt Tags: When using the Image Widget, always take a second to fill in the "Alt Text" field. This describes the image to users who cannot see it—and it is still one of the most effective on-page SEO techniques.
Pro Tip: Do you need a headline to look massive but it’s logically only a sub-section?

Don't break your structure. Instead, use the Display controls (S, M, L, XL, XXL). You can define these sizes globally in the Theme Style, allowing you to separate the look of the text from its HTML tag.

Performance: Leaner, Smarter, Faster

Speed is money. A faster site improves user experience, boosts SEO rankings, and increases conversion rates. In this update, we focused on smart resource loading and reducing the "weight" of the page.

Modular CSS & Conditional Loading

The biggest change under the hood is how we handle styles. In the past, much of the styling was bundled into a single large file. In v2.14, we have split the frontend.css into modular chunks.

Now, the system uses Conditional Loading: the specific CSS for a widget is only loaded if that widget is actually present on the page. For example, if you don't use an Accordion or a Slider on a specific page, your user's browser won't waste time downloading the code for it. This significantly reduces the total page size.

Bfcache (Back/Forward Cache)

We have activated Bfcache support on listing pages. This modern browser feature allows pages to be stored in a special cache memory. When a user clicks a product and then decides to hit the "Back" button to return to the category list, the page loads instantly—no reloading, no waiting. This makes the browsing experience feel native and incredibly snappy.

DOM Reduction (Cleaner Code)

We also took the opportunity to tidy up the HTML output. By removing unnecessary wrapper tags from several widgets (such as .elementor-image or .elementor-text-editor), we’ve made the code cleaner. While this is a minor optimization compared to our CSS improvements, a lighter DOM structure contributes to slightly faster rendering—and every little bit helps.

New Design Features & SEO Tools

Of course, it wouldn't be a Creative Elements update without new creative tools to help you build better shops.

  • Product Quantity Widget: By popular request, we have added a dedicated Quantity widget to the Product Miniature builder. You can now let customers choose the quantity directly from the product grid before adding to cart.
  • FAQ Schema Support: The Accordion and Toggle widgets now feature an option to automatically generate FAQ Schema. Enabling this signals to Google that your content is a Q&A format, significantly increasing your chances of getting rich snippets (expanded results) in Google Search.
FAQ Schema Support

How to Update?

Creative Elements v2.14 is available now. You can update directly via your module manager to take advantage of these new features immediately. The update process handles everything automatically, so you can get back to building straight away.

Build for everyone. Load instantly. Convert more.

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