Create Menu still needs a re-work

[Morrigan]

So I have been revamping my main site for ages today and it reminded me how much I loathe the "Create" link.

It shows you EVERYTHING you have access to submit if your database name and the record name are the same they are redundant as hell (Submit Record to Records) and this is even more prevalent when you use a single category setup instead of having multiple categories.

On top of that (and I'm submitting this in a separate topic) Pages databases are a mess in it.

I recently revamped my Create link, though I can't fix all of my issues I was able to take it from this:

To this:

 

While some of that (I'd say about five from the first section) are admin/staff only it doesn't make that list any less daunting or confusing for an end user.

 

So my issues:

• No option in order. It currently follows an App order to put it into the list and for Pages they are all listed in whatever order they want looking at it now.
• No option in what shows in here. If I want a database to be submitted from only one page I can't tell the create menu (without editing the template) what not to show.
• Create is too vague of a term. I changed my verbiage to "Quick Create Content" to see if it gets used any more than it had been before as it stands even though it moves with the site I still don't think my members know what it is or how to use it.

 

What I want is something where you can mange what shows up and in what order. People are already inundated with how much stuff can be on any one site, it would be good not to overload them with looking through a long list of what they can submit and focus them on your primary content sources.

[craigf136]

To be completely honest, who actually uses the create option? I've not seen any statistics but I don't know anyone that actually does?

[Jordan Miller]

2 hours ago, craigf136 said:

To be completely honest, who actually uses the create option? I've not seen any statistics but I don't know anyone that actually does?

Wellllll lol @Morrigan does 🤠

I would be interested to see some stats on how often the Create button is used. 

On my own community, there's a "start new topic" button always visible in our footer navigation (bottom right), which I think has been a game changer. I know it's a little bit of a tangent, but worth mentioning :] 

Our header nav also has a + sign that acts as our create button btw but I think people are more likely to use the footer one.
 

 

Btw this theme is Chameleon Pro 

[craigf136]

3 minutes ago, Jordan Invision said:

On my own community, there's a "start new topic" button always visible in our footer navigation (bottom right), which I think has been a game changer.

It's a nice feature of @Ehrenthemes tbh but statistics on it aren't available. So hard to tell if it's a game changer unless I'm missing something?

 

[Morrigan]

Well I don't think its used because its confusing and isn't explained anywhere. Additionally (as I showed above) it can get really unwieldy on sites with lots of apps and databases. My site alone as you can see, goes over a full screen page on a 1920x1080 computer screen which automatically makes that insane for a list of things that people can see/submit to in there. I wouldn't want to touch it like that.

Newer/Younger people use it but older forum people don't but I would like to see it used more as well and thus my suggestion.

My site, while has a forum focus, isn't just used/needed for forums. Submitting things like Playbys and links to our directory are primary focuses that people should be able to easily access in that Create menu.

[CoffeeCake]

Maybe we could track this with some event tagging: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033068

[Maxxius]

to add to this I must say that for those who need to localize our boards the phrasing in create menu needs to be translated separately. as a separate string and not a string translated from somewhere else in the board and reused in create menu. the same phrase cant be used in both places while looking identical otherwise it will be a silly grammar mistake in one of the locations.

[evcom]

@Morrigan I am also looking into ways to make the "create" menu look better. How did you remove the unwanted menu items? Can this somehow be set? I am particularly interested in the menu items for database records. 

Also, I am looking at ways to modify the URL a menu item points to. Is it somehow possible?

 

Edited October 25, 2021 by evcom

[Charles]

I am curious if there is much value really in the Create menu. I've considered bringing it up for future removal because it feels disjointed to me. Creating things outside of the context of the area you are creating them in has always felt odd to me and I personally never use it.

[Sonya*]

12 minutes ago, Charles said:

I am curious if there is much value really in the Create menu. I've considered bringing it up for future removal because it feels disjointed to me. Creating things outside of the context of the area you are creating them in has always felt odd to me and I personally never use it.

One of the first things I do while customizing projects:

#cCreate + .elUserNav_sep, #cCreate {
  display: none;
}

I wish this would be optional. Especially for Pages it looks odd:

• Project in Projects
• Product in Products
• Course in Courses
• Story in Stories
• Article in Articles
• Link in Links
• ...

and so on.

Edited October 26, 2021 by Sonya*

[Charles]

Yes, we have a lot managed communities we run where the Create menu is hidden as well.

[All Astronauts]

6 hours ago, Sonya* said:

One of the first things I do while customizing projects:

Ditto. Also a Kitchen Sink option to change to just a pencil icon or remove altogether. I really don't know anyone that uses it. The create new topic button on the forums home page is in the same boat. It never felt intuitive.