Your ideas on a Nav structure

[ibaker]

I moved to IPS from another software solution due to the ability to create many different sections on my site, a complete web site. This great power is now a problem for me in terms of a good nav structure and I am interested to hear your ideas on what I could do.

Firstly I so very much believe in:

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

So if a user can't easily see and access something they may never know it is there plus you add that menu real estate is really a premium and is the 2nd most important component of a site behind the Home Page.

My user strongly prefer the vertical navigation system on the side that exists in most apps these days so I had one created. This also provides for more real estate in a nav menu system even down to 1024 x 768 (like an iPad) but still that provides for 14 items comfortably (along with the user menu) and they are all in site of the user, and sticky.

So far I have decided on the following sections for my site:

What's New
Forums
Clubs
Blogs
Events
Media - with sub sections of Gallery, Videos, Articles, Aviation News
Resources - with sub sections of Downloads, Maps, Links, Tutorials, Tools and Calculators, Quizzes
Reference - with sub sections of Aircraft, On This Day, Famous People, plus any other reference items
Commerce - with sub sections of Classifieds, Suppliers, Pilot Shop, Product Reviews
Members - with sub sections of Leader board, Online Users, Staff, Site Support (as it is now)
Off Topic

The problem I have is how to create the grouped sections i.e. Media, Resources, Reference etc as each one contains several sub sections of the site. What I started to do was create a landing page for each one and placed widgets of the latest entries of each sub section on that landing page plus each sub section has a link in the landing page's sub menu which is also sticky:

This is the only way I could think of doing it.

Other ways could be to add a flyout sub menu from the main menu items or as one person suggested just have a clickable icon on the landing page for each of sub sections as each sub section may be an addon with its own sub menu items.

Any suggestions on how you would do a nav structure that would suit my site...thanks and all suggestions greatly appreciated

[bfarber]

The first thought I had was the flyout (i.e. dropdown) menu. If you went that route, you'd want to add a visual indicator the menu item has a submenu (like a > icon next to the text).

[Joel R]

Hi, 

It seems like you've done a great job of utilizing several apps from Invision Community to build out a comprehensive suite. Creating a menu that covers many sections is always a challenge.  Here are some things to consider: 

1. Review and consolidate any unnecessary sections.  I've only briefly looked at your site, and I can immediately see that your clubs section should probably be removed.  You have two clubs, one of them has only 1 member. The other club looks like low activity.  Your menu also lists Offtopic twice, once inside a submenu and another as a main menu item. Your Quizzes also has no content (at least publicly).  There might be other examples.  

Take a hard look at every section of your site, and put them into three columns: critical, growth, low or no activity.  Consolidate or remove anything in "low or no activity." Aggressively monitor anything in "growth" that doesn't take off.  Focus on "critical."

2. To help determine the proper order, be aware that search engines (and users) use it to figure out the most important parts of your site.  Thus, don't list the menu items as you've designed the site.  List the menu items in order of importance: what are the most important sections that visitors and / or returning users will visit? 

3. Design for mobile.  Your Google Analytics should tell you how much of your traffic comes from mobile, but if it's anything like normal traffic in developed countries, you should design for mobile first.  

What does this mean in practice? It means you really only have space (and human attention span) for 4 or 5 main menu items.  Everything else should be dumped into a "More" section.  You have 14 sections, many of which have their own sub-menus.  

4. Use permissions to limit and customize the menu.  The menu manager in IPS allows you to show or hide menu items to membergroups.  For example, I noticed a Suppliers section.  That is a menu item that is probably very important for a supplier, but not too important for everyone else.  

Another common example is trying to show a store to guests, when guests don't have permission to buy.  

I hope this provides some guiding principles to help you rebuild your menu.  Great job with your site! 

[ibaker]

11 hours ago, bfarber said:

The first thought I had was the flyout (i.e. dropdown) menu. If you went that route, you'd want to add a visual indicator the menu item has a submenu (like a > icon next to the text).

Thanks @bfarber that sounds the best option if I don't continue the current route of a landing page...I wonder which is the better?

6 hours ago, Joel R said:

Hi, 

It seems like you've done a great job of utilizing several apps from Invision Community to build out a comprehensive suite. Creating a menu that covers many sections is always a challenge.  Here are some things to consider: 

1. Review and consolidate any unnecessary sections.  I've only briefly looked at your site, and I can immediately see that your clubs section should probably be removed.  You have two clubs, one of them has only 1 member. The other club looks like low activity.  Your menu also lists Offtopic twice, once inside a submenu and another as a main menu item. Your Quizzes also has no content (at least publicly).  There might be other examples.  

Take a hard look at every section of your site, and put them into three columns: critical, growth, low or no activity.  Consolidate or remove anything in "low or no activity." Aggressively monitor anything in "growth" that doesn't take off.  Focus on "critical."

2. To help determine the proper order, be aware that search engines (and users) use it to figure out the most important parts of your site.  Thus, don't list the menu items as you've designed the site.  List the menu items in order of importance: what are the most important sections that visitors and / or returning users will visit? 

3. Design for mobile.  Your Google Analytics should tell you how much of your traffic comes from mobile, but if it's anything like normal traffic in developed countries, you should design for mobile first.  

What does this mean in practice? It means you really only have space (and human attention span) for 4 or 5 main menu items.  Everything else should be dumped into a "More" section.  You have 14 sections, many of which have their own sub-menus.  

4. Use permissions to limit and customize the menu.  The menu manager in IPS allows you to show or hide menu items to membergroups.  For example, I noticed a Suppliers section.  That is a menu item that is probably very important for a supplier, but not too important for everyone else.  

Another common example is trying to show a store to guests, when guests don't have permission to buy.  

I hope this provides some guiding principles to help you rebuild your menu.  Great job with your site! 

Thanks @Joel R some good points there:

1. Firstly we need to consider that I have gone from the pseudo Facebook environment of Xenforo to IPS as I once had the greatest Recreational Aviation web site in the Southern Hemisphere which started to go downhill as more and more Aviation groups appeared on Facebook. To differentiate from Facebook I need to provide one overall single repository of all information possible to recreational aviators. The Clubs has only just started and I am trying to get the site the best possible before I embark on a promotional campaign to all the different aviation clubs and schools out there and when I do I hope the clubs section will then take off. Funny you mention Quizzes, I must have only uploaded that addon minutes before you looked at the site. Over the next couple of weeks the Quizzes section will become populated...trying to find a Quiz Master user at the moment and in Aviation they need to know a lot especially for safety.

2. Currently due to the Xenforo experience users just know the forums and in fact a recent analysis shows that 90% of returning members use the Whats New (Activity Stream) page as their bookmarked page. I need the users to expand their horizons more and all the other parts of the site and that is working by simply looking at the views that the new areas are getting like the Tutorials I have. In terms of the order of menu items nearly all of it except for the Forums, Gallery and Downloads is new. Is there a trade off between trying to promote new areas at the top of the order compared to losing them below in the order? I have categorised the single menu items as "Social" areas whilst categorising the other areas into specific subject matter headings

3. I am getting around 50/50 of PC to mobile with mobile covering both phones and tablets. Many of my users that use a tablet have an iPad which is 1024x768 and the site is developed to cover PC from 1024x768 up and mobile below that. The side menu column is removed below 1024x768 which is obvious on an iPad when changing from landscape to portrait. But good advice

4. The Supplier's section is also new and I hope will be the beginning of some monetary gain for the site in time. This was included as many users posted about "Where can I get..." as the site includes sport aircraft builders.

I very much appreciate your comments Joel and before I start spending the money to promote the site I needed to get the basics of the site right first and the way the Navigation/Menu is done is as I said the 2nd most important component of any site behind the Home Page. I know some will argue that Content is more important but what is the good of content if a user can't access it easily first?

So at this stage we have suggestion to remove the section landing pages and have a flyout from the main menu of sub menu items for direct access but I wonder whether if a user is on one of the sub menu items are the other items in that section not seen..."Out of Sight, Out of Mind"...What other options are there and which is the best?

[openfire]

On 8/21/2019 at 12:33 AM, ibaker said:

I moved to IPS from another software solution due to the ability to create many different sections on my site, a complete web site. This great power is now a problem for me in terms of a good nav structure and I am interested to hear your ideas on what I could do.

Firstly I so very much believe in:

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

So if a user can't easily see and access something they may never know it is there plus you add that menu real estate is really a premium and is the 2nd most important component of a site behind the Home Page.

My user strongly prefer the vertical navigation system on the side that exists in most apps these days so I had one created. This also provides for more real estate in a nav menu system even down to 1024 x 768 (like an iPad) but still that provides for 14 items comfortably (along with the user menu) and they are all in site of the user, and sticky.

So far I have decided on the following sections for my site:

What's New
Forums
Clubs
Blogs
Events
Media - with sub sections of Gallery, Videos, Articles, Aviation News
Resources - with sub sections of Downloads, Maps, Links, Tutorials, Tools and Calculators, Quizzes
Reference - with sub sections of Aircraft, On This Day, Famous People, plus any other reference items
Commerce - with sub sections of Classifieds, Suppliers, Pilot Shop, Product Reviews
Members - with sub sections of Leader board, Online Users, Staff, Site Support (as it is now)
Off Topic

The problem I have is how to create the grouped sections i.e. Media, Resources, Reference etc as each one contains several sub sections of the site. What I started to do was create a landing page for each one and placed widgets of the latest entries of each sub section on that landing page plus each sub section has a link in the landing page's sub menu which is also sticky:

This is the only way I could think of doing it.

Other ways could be to add a flyout sub menu from the main menu items or as one person suggested just have a clickable icon on the landing page for each of sub sections as each sub section may be an addon with its own sub menu items.

Any suggestions on how you would do a nav structure that would suit my site...thanks and all suggestions greatly appreciated

I have an entirely different vision of the layout and navigation for the forum I'm working on (still in the very early stages), but I must say, nice site!

[ahc]

On 8/21/2019 at 2:49 PM, Joel R said:

Take a hard look at every section of your site, and put them into three columns: critical, growth, low or no activity.  Consolidate or remove anything in "low or no activity." Aggressively monitor anything in "growth" that doesn't take off.  Focus on "critical."

This is interesting.  Would not giving low activity areas a boost on the nav help bring more activity to that area?  I find a lot of times when people don't use something, it's because they don't know it's there and I figured it would be a good way to combat that problem by giving it decent real estate.

[Joel R]

On 8/27/2019 at 1:06 PM, Alismora said:

This is interesting.  Would not giving low activity areas a boost on the nav help bring more activity to that area?  I find a lot of times when people don't use something, it's because they don't know it's there and I figured it would be a good way to combat that problem by giving it decent real estate.

If you're strategically adding one new section as a major and focused initiative, then yes, it makes sense to intentionally push traffic towards it.  

But too many admins have multiple sections with low to no activity and spreading your traffic out compounds the problem.  In the case of the OP, he has 14 menu sections.  Do all of them have substantive activity? Are all of them a valuable and strategic part of his site? I'm not so sure.  The fact that he links to Off Topic in his menu (and this is an observation, not a critique) tells me that not all of those sections serve a strategic purpose other than to be linked.  

You don't win on the internet by having lots and lots of mediocre sections with little to no activity.  Pushing visitors to a ghost town doesn't entice them. 

To be totally candid, most communities are only excellent at one section (eg. Forums).  When you grow, you want to do so in a thoughtful and sustained manner.  That's when you add it to your menu as a topline item.