New Navigation Menu

[Dani]

A beta version of our new navigation menu is going live now as I work out kinks over the rest of today. It's much easier for me to work out last minute details on a working, live version :)

[bobbyraw]

Looks good Dani....But instead of opening a psge why not have a drop down menu to select exactly what you want from each main topic,

PS after the page open some people would still be lost......Just a suggestion

[Dani]

It's not nearly done yet ... let me finish setting it up the way that I want and then I'll accept comments. A lot of things are still in flux :)

UNFORTUNATELY ... there was only so much that could be done from the development server, and it required me to actively try the 1000 combinations possible on the live site in order to account for everything working.

[bobbyraw]

i am cool with that. I have GREAT confidence in you Dani Queen...do your stuff it's look good already

[ndeniche]

well, i see its going in a good way... lets see the final product...

[jasimp]

I think it looks a little more professional.

[ndeniche]

though, i would say, you should remove the lines between the first menu and the second menu... in my opinion id would look more sophisticated...

[sarehu]

Sophisticated shmophisticated! It is perfect the way it is.

[zandiago]

I'd recommend putting back the line/bar between the threads and the Read-me's, such as in the software development section.

[Dani]

I'd recommend putting back the line/bar between the threads and the Read-me's, such as in the software development section.

This was changed a couple of months ago because people were naturally directing their eye to the first thread below the line, therefore causing many more people to ignore the Readmes.

[Serunson]

I'm liking the new split bar across the top. Because my mouse moves so damn fast across the screen, it used to select the forum drop-downs instead of the main screen. Looks good to me :)

[WaltP]

I also like the split bar, but when you click on something on the second bar, the top bar resets to HOME. IMO it needs to remember the setting. In my case, i always want FORUM.

Also, the second bar seems longer than before, requiring more horizontal scrolling. Can the bar images be horizontally compressed by about 1/5th?

[img]http://wpattinson.com/img/home.gif[/img]
[img]http://wpattinson.com/img/sitemanagement.gif[/img]
[img]http://wpattinson.com/img/softwaredevelopment.gif[/img]
[img]http://wpattinson.com/img/webdevelopment.gif[/img]

How do you insert am image in this forum?

I'm liking the new split bar across the top. Because my mouse moves so damn fast across the screen, it used to select the forum drop-downs instead of the main screen.

So slow it down. You have the power! :icon_wink:

[Serunson]

It's Laser, and it didn't come with software to slow it down :P Full speed ahead! :D

[ndeniche]

careful!!! speeding mouse ahead...

[Dani]

WaltP,

To answer your question about it remembering your setting on the top bar when you select a different item, I had thought about that when designing it. However, I ran into the problem of what if you had Code Snippets selected on the top and then selected Tech Talk or Site Management on the bottom. Not all of the features are available for all categories.

Secondly, tutorials, code snippets, blog entries, and the link directory all have vertical navigation menus that contain all of the other categories for that feature, which would make the navigation menu remembering the top setting redundant.

Therefore, I decided to make it remember the category you're in but not the feature (forums, etc).

In exchange for not having a forum vertical menu as there is for code snippets, blogs, links and tutorials, the category dropdown menus let you arrive at any individual forum.

To answer your second question ... attach an image and then use [attach]ATTACHMENT ID #[/attach] bbcode.

[Dani]

I'm liking the new split bar across the top. Because my mouse moves so damn fast across the screen, it used to select the forum drop-downs instead of the main screen. Looks good to me :)

I'm not sure what you mean because the dropdown menus work the exact same way and they're in the same location.

The option to "find all unanswered posts today" is gone, etc.

Some people may find that mildly annoying if they were using that function before. I can't really comment, as I don't post as regularly as I used to on the technical forums.

But, other than that, I like the new layout.

[ndeniche]

this is just my opinion... but, have you thought on removing the division between the buttons in the first navigation menu? i mean, the active tab is in a different color, but, when you hover a button next to it, there is a division between both buttons...

[joshSCH]

I like it Dani, and my opinion is the only one that counts ;-)

[John A]

I also like the new navigation menu. I particularly like the way the submenus allow for a larger font, improving readability. It looks much cleaner now.

[ndeniche]

um... josh... your opinion isn't even as valuable as the opinion of a member 2 minutes old...

you're soo overrated...

[Dani]

* officially opening this up to comments and criticism and suggestions *

[WaltP]

WaltP,

To answer your question about it remembering your setting on the top bar when you select a different item, I had thought about that when designing it. However, I ran into the problem of what if you had Code Snippets selected on the top and then selected Tech Talk or Site Management on the bottom. Not all of the features are available for all categories.

Not a user friendly decision, IMO. If the feature is available, stick to it. If it's not, what's the most obvious feature to enter when selected. I don't think it's fair to force a double mouse movement/click when changing forums.

Secondly, tutorials, code snippets, blog entries, and the link directory all have vertical navigation menus that contain all of the other categories for that feature, which would make the navigation menu remembering the top setting redundant.

Then don't remember it there.

To answer your second question ... attach an image and then use [attach]ATTACHMENT ID #[/attach] bbcode.

OK, here goes:
[attach]5038[/attach]

OK, it works. But why don't IMG tags work?

[John A]

>But why don't IMG tags work?

I would guess it has something to do with this:
http://www.daniweb.com/forums/post329034-4.html

[Dani]

Walt ... the way it is now, it has the same functionality as the standard two-level menu, which most people are familiar with. Whenever you select something in the top level, you're staying within your category. Whenever you select something in the bottom level, you're going to that section's homepage, where you can see a forum index, latest forum threads, code snippet languages, featured directory listings, etc.

[Dani]

Also ... as it is, when you're in the Site Management, etc categories, the Code Snippets section is unavailable. I don't want to do that both ways where someone arriving in our Code Snippets section doesn't know all of the topic we cover because Site Management just so happens to be unavailable for Code Snippets.

Also, it is bad usability to not be consistent ... the user should be able to know where they're arriving before they make the click ... not a "second choice" location for some categories and a different page for others.

Also, it shouldn't take you any extra clicks to get somewhere. Let's say that you are in the PHP forum and you want to see the C++ forum. Just use the dropdown menu. Now let's say you want to see the entire Software Development category ... if you click on the Software Dev button, you'll be able to see which Software Dev subforums have new posts, and the last couple of new posts, but if you want more detailed information, just click the "Forums" link in the breadcrumb right from that PHP forum page you're currently on. If you are looking for Tech Talk, you might have to scroll a little bit because it's not JUST one category on the page, but it gives you all the same info in one click.

[WaltP]

>But why don't IMG tags work?

I would guess it has something to do with this:
http://www.daniweb.com/forums/post329034-4.html

I guess that makes sense... :icon_redface:

Dani:
Update on the update:
With the forum index on the HOME page, I have no 'real' problem with the HOME page default, just a philosophical one. Especially if you can implement the read folder double-click.

And I still feel the images should be made a little shorter.

The new page layouts look really good. I like the idea that the code snippets and blogs follow the second-line topic.

[Dani]

> And I still feel the images should be made a little shorter.
I don't understand what you mean.

[Dani]

> Especially if you can implement the read folder double-click.
Done.

[~s.o.s~]

Looks a bit more sophisticated than the previous one and above all, it's usable, something which Dani was not planning to do at first. ;-)