Questions · Buy
Is a hover only swatch picker common in store themes?
Custom swatch pickers built from non interactive elements are a well established pattern in themes, which is exactly why the keyboard test is worth running on a theme you did not write.
Why it happens
An agent interacts with a page the way assistive technology does: by finding controls and activating them. A div that changes appearance on mouseover is not a control. It has no role, it takes no focus, and clicking it does nothing, so there is no action for the agent to take.
The picker looks entirely finished to the person who built it, because a mouse makes it work. That is why this survives QA: every human test passes.
This comes up at the Buy stage. The full treatment, including how to reproduce it and what to change, is on Size or colour can only be chosen by hovering.
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Run a free scan and find out which of these your store actually hits.