Full width menus with html content

houstonlively posted 17th of October 2012 in Community Voice. 7 comments.

I've read a lot of posts in the forums here on boonex.com regarding the complexity of Dolphin's drop down menus. I've read a lot of posts complaining that navigation is too complex, and that Dolphin sites are hard to understand.  I don't think that's all true, but I've been looking at Dolphin sites for four years now.   On one site I am developing, I have decided to use full width drop down menus.  Each drop down will have three separate content divs to display html content that relates to the menu items.  It will be basic info to describe what the user can expect to find in each section of the site, what they can do there. All this content will be inserted via languages keys that are automatically generated by a modified menu system.  The idea is to give the user a quick overview of the entire site, from any page on the site, without taking up any permanent page space.

Below is a screen shot.

 

This is only an experiment, to see if it improves the first impression of the site in regards to navigation and site complexity.  This did not require any changes to source files.... it's all done in the custom template.   I also realize that once a user gets experience using the site, full width menus may just get in the way.  For those users, I'll let them switch to a simpler version of the menu... probably just a two column drop menu.

 

*Please note that I did not post this in an attempt to advertise anything, sell anything, or promote anything.  I posted this in response to Caltrade's post regarding engaging users, because I believe this concept relates in a general way.  I created this separate post only because I could not attach a screen shot to a reply.

 
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sybersolutions
Really cool. I would love to have something like this. let me know if you decide to publish this.
houstonlively
Once 7.1 is released, I'll put out a wide menu version of the free template I just did. The wide menu is not something you want to stick your users with, and not give them another template choice. It's a great way for inexperienced users to become familiar with a Dolphin site, but once they get the hang of things, they may find that the huge menu just gets in the way.
sybersolutions
Are you still planning on working on a wide menu template?? :o) :0) :o)
houstonlively
Yes... I just haven't had the time to work on it. I've also been waiting for 7.1 final to be released. I'll probably do a wide menu version of the free template I posted in the forums. My idea is to use a wide menu as a 'Helper' to inexperienced site users to convey information about each top menu item. You can even embed videos. When users get more experienced, they may find that the wide menu just gets in the way, so I'll give them a quick way to switch to a standard menu.
sybersolutions
Thank you... Yes it would really help. I have been told that my site was too complicated to navigate thru a few years back when I first created the site. I look forward to seeing this.
Houston, you come up with some of the most brilliant stuff. I like this a lot sir. Cant wait!
richmanfl
I think that the full width menu is fantastic. will it work for touch enabled devices instead of having HOVER? If this were a module, it would be highly in demand. The additional content will come in handy. I wanted something like this which is akin to the jQuery MegaMenu out there.
 
 
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