[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #23119: UI Improvements to nav-menus.php

[WordPress Trac]

#23119: UI Improvements to nav-menus.php
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 Reporter:  lessbloat  |       Type:  enhancement
   Status:  new        |   Priority:  normal
Milestone:  3.6        |  Component:  Menus
  Version:             |   Severity:  normal
 Keywords:             |
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 There are some UI issues with nav-menus.php that have been around for a
 while (like tabs being confusing for managing multiple menus).

 Knowing this, we ran a couple of
 [http://make.wordpress.org/ui/2013/01/01/i-ran-two-users-through-a-set-of/
 menus-based user tests] hoping to find additional ideas for improvements.

 Here's a list of potential enhancements that I'd like to test for 3.6:

 1) Managing menus as tabs can be confusing.  Sometimes users think the
 tabs represent the menu itself, and they'll create multiple menus by
 mistake (thinking the tabs represent menu items).  Tabs also pose a
 problem, after you get 10+ menus.  I'd like to test the idea of removing
 the tabs altogether.  My thought was to add a "add menu" link next to the
 header (similar to other areas of the admin), and move menu selection to a
 drop down select box.

 2) In the "add new menu" view, new users get confused as to what they are
 supposed to do.  Both of the users we tested wanted to click the "Create
 Menu" button first (not noticing the menu name field). I'd like to test
 adding focus to the menu name field, and moving the "Create Menu" button
 closer to the name field (just for this add new screen).

 3) The "theme locations" section appears to be semi-confusing to users.
 I'd like to test moving the functionality to the bottom of the page, and
 changing the formatting, so that it no longer matches the formatting of
 the rest of the left column, and perhaps changing the wording a bit.

 4) I'd like to add an intro sentence which explains that menus can be used
 as custom navigation within your theme (we'd link to "theme locations" at
 the bottom of the page), or within widgets (adding a link to widgets).  It
 will just be a quick, short sentence to introduce the concept of menus,
 while at the same time exposing the fact that menus can be used in
 widgets.

 5) There's a lot of wasted space in the left column.  Moving "theme
 locations" to the bottom of the page will free up a little space, but I'd
 like to see if there is anything else we can do to eliminate the need to
 scroll.  I'd like to test changing the left column to an accordion (using
 jQuery UI).  Thus eliminating a bunch of padding, and showing only one
 menu items options at a time.  We'll test it and see how it performs.

 6) When a user saves a change to "theme locations" it would be nice to
 give them a link to preview their new menu.

 Once we complete some patches, we'll test these enhancements by re-running
 more users through the same set of user tests.

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/23119>
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