Menu & Screen Resolution (post your feedback)

14 posts by 7 authors in: Forums > CMS Builder
Last Post: August 29, 2008   (RSS)

By Dave - April 6, 2008 - edited: April 22, 2008

A few people have commented that they'd like to see the menu system work differently. I'm thinking about 3 ideas to redesign it:

Home Page Menu - We could list menu options on the home page and have a "Home" or "Sections" link on the menubar. One issue with this is you'd need to click back to it to select a different menu - all the menu links wouldn't be available from every page as they are now.

Left Nav Menu - I like this one alot, however I'm worried about making the interface too wide. We're already designing for 800x600 so this would push it up to 1024x768. I think the majority of users are at that resolution or higher (stats) but not all are, some people have sidebar programs that take up space, and not everyone has their browser open full screen all the time (although that's one click)

Top Nav Dropdown - This one would replace all the top menu options with a CSS dropdown menu called "Sections" or "Editors". The challenge with this is what to do if someone has 100 editors. :)

I would like to leave open the option of adding different "groups" of menus options in future if we add additional functionality to CMS Builder that isn't "Section Editor" related.

If anyone has customized their interface and would like to share a screenshot could you do so?

Also, let me know the max number of menu items you have and any thoughts or suggestions. Thanks!
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Re: [Dave] CMS Builder Menu & Screen Resolution (post your feedback)

By aev - April 8, 2008

Hi!

We would really like to see a more modern design for the CMS Builder admin pages!

We are not concerned about using a wider design, and vote for a Left Nav Menu system.


-AEV

Re: [Dave] CMS Builder Menu & Screen Resolution (post your feedback)

By InHouse - April 8, 2008

My $0.02 worth...

A left column nav would make sense to me. Standardizing on 1024px wide is not unreasonable these days, and will just become more so as time goes on.

I would agree that a face lift for the Admin area would be nice. The current system will certainly confuse my clients who will perceive a different value for the editors in the drop down list vs. the 5 visible options in the horizontal nav bar.

J.

Re: [Dave] Notice: Menu & Screen Resolution (post your feedback)

By rasbro - April 21, 2008

Left side menu is my vote, and 1024x768 makes sense for screen resolution.

Brian

Re: [Dave] Notice: Menu & Screen Resolution (post your feedback)

By Dave - April 22, 2008

Thanks everybody for their feedback on this. I've found a design I'm going to go with. It has a left based nav and it's pretty nice. You'll see it soon in a future release!
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Re: [Dave] Menu & Screen Resolution (post your feedback)

By Codee - April 24, 2008

why not, upon setup or login, give an option for the main menu (read: user choice). Then, depending upon the choice at setup it uses a different set of files...but of course, in future upgrades CMS core would have to detect the current setup, or bad things can happen.

Re: [equinox69] Menu & Screen Resolution (post your feedback)

By Dave - April 24, 2008

More menu styles and options means more testing, support and programming. So I want to limit it to one, but certainly if you have a particular design that you want to use, we can give you some tips on updating the header and footer php files that make up the menu.
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Re: [Dave] Notice: Menu & Screen Resolution (post your feedback)

By aev - May 12, 2008

Thanks everybody for their feedback on this. I've found a design I'm going to go with. It has a left based nav and it's pretty nice. You'll see it soon in a future release!


Do you have an estimated release date for this to share with us? This month, next month or several months away?? [cool]

-aev-

Re: [aev] Notice: Menu & Screen Resolution (post your feedback)

By Dave - May 12, 2008

This feature (the new design) has been sidetracked by some other priorities. It could be a ways off yet. I want to add subcategory support first (a section that can support subcategory lists). If you want to create your own design for a left nav UI (even a simple one) I'd be happy to help you make it work.

Hope that helps.
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com