Re: Re: Site Structure: Header

On Oct 20, 2009, at 11:25 AM, Burka Daniel wrote:

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.

I like that it's simpler.

2) Primary links are reduced from 12 to 6. Much easier to scan/parse than before.

Excellent, they were getting out of control. Agree 100%.

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.

Seems like an okay name to me, and a fairly common term used with other projects... and the topics there seem appropriate. Tweaks can take place later.

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.

I forgot to mention in my original post that I'd suggest that the mega-dropdown would use JQuery to delay the appearance for a 1/4 second and appear using a very fast slide or fade effect. I'm currently just doing it on hover with css, which is easy but too fast – it'd get annoying quickly if the drop appeared each time you went to the location bar in your browser.

This caught me by surprise at first (like, WOW! BIG!) but after a few moments I determined it's good. We tend to require a lot of clicking of links so this gives us the information we need (and want) and allows us to easily select it right away. I'm unsure how this would change throughout the site (like, if we're viewing the MySQL docs, would we see a mega-drop with mysql functions?) but simply put: I'm in favor of taking the plunge into mega-dropdown land. And the added delay you mentioned should help a lot.

4) Don't pay any attention to the documentation under the header... it's rough/hardly started.

The user comments seem to be distracting a few people, so maybe remove them for now.

5) Small, compact, simple logo treatment can work at very small sizes.

There is disagreement about changes to the logo but personally I like the change. However, alternatives with subtle changes will likely be required.

** 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

Nice article. And for people not into it, they can click the link as done before (and not wait for or use the mega-dropdown). Regards, Philip