Site Structure: Header

Further to the discussion about the site structure, I've jumped into html/css and mocked up a potential header for subpages on the site. I've been thinking we'd do a similar but different header on the homepage of PHP.net and then have a consistent and very compact header for all other pages. http://www.whitelands.com/daniel/php/mock1/ Notes: 1) Header is very compact. Much smaller and less intrusive than the current PHP.net header. 2) Primary links are reduced from 12 to 6. Much easier to scan/parse than before. 3) But... I'm using mega-dropdowns** under two of the menu items. This allows very quick access to most parts of the documentation and many of the sections that I've lumped under 'Community'. This could be a nice balance... reduce the number of menu items at the same time as giving more ready access to more areas of the site.

     a) I'm really not sure 'Community' is a good name for this.

     b) The 'Community' mega-dropdown is poorly formatted. I focused more on the doc one.

     c) The mega-drop is a bit awkward in its current design. A non-white background or narrower width could help.

4) Don't pay any attention to the documentation under the header... it's rough/hardly started. 5) Small, compact, simple logo treatment can work at very small sizes. ** Jakob Neilsen has written a bit about the usability of mega-dropdowns. No matter what you think of the guy, he's often right about things. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mega-dropdown-menus.html Daniel

The structure and organization of the website is one of the areas that I think is most in need of improvement. There are currently many (12) top-level menu options that appear on every page of PHP.net. Pro: Quickly access many areas of the site once you've learned the nav. Cons: Difficult to quickly parse. Intimidating. More overlap between potential options. Compact. I think we should reduce this to 6 or 7 options. See this HTML doc with notes and a potential organization structure. I'm sure I'm missing parts of the site in here, which aren't immediately apparent in the current structure. Please educate me. http://www.whitelands.com/daniel/php/sitemap.html Also, this may make more sense in a wiki so everyone can edit. If so, tell me where to put it. Daniel