Feedback requested on proposed nav bar change

We have a change request to update the main nav bar to make it a bit easier to tap on on touch screen devices.

Right now our nav bars look something like this:

and the change is proposing something along the lines of this:

You can see and feel it in person on https://beta.online-go.com/

Please let us know what you think!

  • I like the current look best
  • I like the proposed look best
  • I like the horizontal and highlighted item look of the proposed change, but not the vertical spacing
  • I like the vertical spacing, but not the increase in horizontal spacing
  • I donā€™t want a navbar at all

0 voters

3 Likes

I have a different observation, for someone with a poor eyesight, a link underline is easier to see than a change in background hue (excuse my non- accurate technical language).

Other than that, I think itā€™s fine.

2 Likes

Not what you are asking for, but I think the main (and for me only) problems around the navigation are:

  1. many new players do not notice the hamburger menu, which you need for challenging specific players
  2. ā€˜searchā€™ may be a term that is not an obvious choice for searching players, it could search for lots of different things
6 Likes

Perhaps using media queries you can enable it for touch screen devices, while keeping the rest the same?

My reasons for voting the original:

  • I like the bar to be as thin as possible, to leave more space for the board.
  • I like the bar not to become wider, as buttons keep falling off when I have OGS on only half of my screen

I must say I do like the background colour changing :slight_smile:

7 Likes

And indeed it does, it is an omnibar that can search for not just players but also groups and tournaments, etc.

6 Likes

Well, one thing Iā€™d like to note: the forums navbar is even larger than the proposed main navbar!

Anyway itā€™s a nice update in my opinion!

2 Likes

I think this is worth highlighting if you are poking around the navbar code. It really is one of the most common questions we get ā€œI am new, how do I challenge someone in particularā€. Otherwise it looks great imo. Maybe we could get away with just a bit less of the vertical spacing and still feel comfortable for my thumbs, but awesome nevertheless :slight_smile:

4 Likes

Itā€™s smaller. I got more entries (Home, Play) visible than on the current layout (Home).

2 Likes

No Forums link?

I also donā€™t like that the increased height will use more screen space.

3 Likes

It just doesnā€™t fit. On a wider screen it would still be there.

1 Like

It looks like the same screen in both screenshots, and while it fit before, it doesnā€™t fit after the change.

It might not affect everyone, but I think itā€™s worthwhile to consider how it might affect the experience for some new users, who then might be less likely to become aware that the forums even exist, and how it could impact the convenience for other users who might want a handy link to go to the forums.

4 Likes

I canā€™t tell the difference (on my phone) except that the new one uses a bit more screen space.

If anything were to change in this bar Iā€™d suggest making the single visible menu option (home) something else when you are already ā€œhomeā€.

1 Like

Personally, Iā€™d be cool with removing Home (and the other links) from the nav bar on mobile. When a tournament is running, I donā€™t even see the whole word!

5 Likes

I personally like the current thin bar which has room for ā€œprofileā€ and ā€œforumsā€. As a laptop user, i appreciate the board getting as much room as possible, so i dont like the idea of making the navbar any fatter :confused:

3 Likes

Maybe just leave ā€œforumsā€!

2 Likes

Yeah I have to say, for playing on a laptop, I prefer the current one for this reason. (I could probably still play on 19x19 with the new layout of course)

I think I almost never see any of the navbar links on mobile.

Also again if the navbar is being edited, while thereā€™ multiple ways to get to ones profile, it would be great to push the profile to the top (or left in this case) of the list. Iā€™m sure that home and profile must be the most used. I typically use home to view my current games and profile to check game history etc, and most of the time to get to profile I either click home and then my username, or sometimes my user icon in the top left (barely ever the hamburger menu because profile is always down the very bottom).

If we need to make room, I think we can do without leaderboards. No-one really knows how they work right? (I did recently read about it on forums, but how would you find out without askingā€¦) Profile is almost never visible for me in the navbar as it is now.

1 Like

Do you not use zen mode for this?

1 Like

Do it, just because it will annoy streamers who have OGS overlays >:)

I like the proposed look, but how about saving some space with buttons that drop down like on Lichess?

E.g:

  • Play

    • Create a Game
    • Tournaments
    • Ladders
  • Study

    • Learn to play Go
    • Joseki
    • Puzzles
    • Other Go Resources
  • Community

    • Forums
    • Chat
    • Leaderboards
    • Groups

etc. Youā€™d save a lot of horizontal space and be able to bring more links out from the Hamburger menu that a lot of people miss on desktop. The parent button can have a default link that takes you to the most obvious choice.

8 Likes

I didnā€™t feel the need to use zen mode so far myself, but Iā€™ve read on the forums that there could be a bug with it not showing byo-yomi which could be annoying.

2 Likes

@ MooToYouToo, I am grateful for this suggestion to categorize and make drop-downs!

Reading through the other comments I see a lot of very valid concerns (some having to do with this particular proposed changed and some tangential). This suggestion seems a good one to address a lot of confusion.

5 Likes