Sidebar vs hamburger/ bacon dropdown menu- please vote

Site Discussions
1

Poll:

  • New sidebar
  • Original hamburger
0 voters

Regarding the sidebar that is implemented in the newest version of the forum software, users have expressed a desire to move the content back to the original hamburger/ bacon dropdown menu next to the user profile icon on the upper right hand side of the screen. I found a setting that can move the sidebar menu back to the original spot.

New sidebar option:

SNAG-0001
SNAG-00011863Ă—1848 234 KB

Original hamburger/ bacon dropdown menu:

SNAG-0002
SNAG-0002840Ă—1481 63.4 KB

I put a poll at the top of this post that lets the user base express their preference for the location of the menu. I don’t have a preference one way or the other. Whichever option gets >50% gets the nod. Poll closes by the end of Sunday 3/31 11:59pm PDT.

I see pros and cons for both approaches:

Sidebar pros: On a bigger screen, it can quickly take you to your destination, especially for power users who customize the categories/ tags.

Sidebar cons: On a smaller screen, it can be cluttered, or may even squeeze the post, topic list sections.

Hamburger/ bacon dropdown pros: it is where it has always been.

Hamburger/ bacon dropdown cons: Takes an extra click to get to certain destinations if you prefer sidebar.

With that said, the menu, whether its in the new sidebar location, or the original hamburger/ bacon location, is changed. (See pictures above) I want to clarify that, We use a very popular open source forum software, widely used by both enterprises and hobbyists. We have no control over user interface decisions of the software, whether we are in favor of them or not. We aren’t for example, Chowhound, where they designed and customize their own UI, and owned the reaction from the user base for any UI change rollout.

With that said, the software is very well vetted and it is free.

4 Likes
2

Once more for the row in the back:

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3

I don’t mind the sidebar, and I think I prefer this to the hamburger (took me a while to figure out what the hamburger was referring to). I wish this were an adjustable sidebar, as I agree it is a tad wide for the average laptop. I do think the tags at the bottom can be super helpful for popular topics and threads.

2 Likes
4

I dislike the sidebar. It adds too many things to the screen. And why is the sidebar icon a skid mark?

1 Like
5

Is there a “none of the above” option?

6

Ahem, it’s bacon.

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7

And everything is better with bacon. Even websites.

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8

I keep the side thingie closed because it takes up too much space, so it really doesn’t matter to me. Whichever is chosen, will we still have that option?

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9

I thought this comment from admin explained it rather sufficiently.

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10

people who write the code but never use the software have zero comma zilch idea of what taking 25% of the screen away means to real life users.

clicking on the snake gets rid of the side bar.
I rarely used the burger stack, but confiscating my screen area is simply unacceptable.

2 Likes
11

I almost always use my iPhone to access HO. If I had HO open on my laptop (17” with external monitor), I don’t think I’d get any work done. That said, today was a sickday for Spring Onion, so with not much work getting done, I checked it out on my desktop setup. I definitely prefer the new left-hand sidebar (and I voted). Whatever the outcome, thank you @hungryonion for putting it to a democratic vote!

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If hamburger/ bacon on the upper right is chosen, then same thing as before- everything under that icon is hidden unless you click on the icon.

2 Likes
13

Its an either or choice.

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14

Who knew! I was wondering why that was there!

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15

Can someone direct me to the hamburger? All I see is bacon - not that that’s a bad thing, per se :slight_smile:

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16

I think the hamburger is gone for now, unless it’s voted back in.

17

TBH I don’t think I ever saw the hamburger, just the bacon strips :woman_shrugging:

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18

Agreed.

1 Like
19

You know what a “hamburger” menu is, correct? They are traditionally 3 horizontal lines on most websites. HO’s “hamburger” menu has always been depicted whimsically as bacon strips but now has been moved over to the left side of the screen, from it’s original location, towards the right, which when chosen, the menu options would hover in front of the content, obscuring it. I prefer the new placement of the hamburger/bacon menu, towards the left which is a pop-out, doesn’t obscure the content, and can easily be minimized. There is no literal hamburger. And it (depicted as bacon in our case) has always been there, just moved. Or maybe I am misinterpreting your, @LindaWhit, and @bbqboy’s comments?

5 Likes
20

I think we all need to clarify how we’re viewing HO - I do so both on my phone (at home) and on my computer’s monitor (at work).

I don’t mind the bacon sidebar on a computer monitor, as it doesn’t obscure anything, but I’m still more used to the pop-down. But I dislike the bacon/hamburger left hand pop-out on the left on my phone screen, because it obscures the entire screen. It used to be a pop-down on a phone, which is preferable to me.

4 Likes