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Photon @lemdro.id Xylight @lemdro.id

Fixing Photon's navigation

Update: Photon v1.29.4 has addressed these concerns. Let me know what you think here

It seems the navigation is widely disliked by many people. I want Photon to be the most intuitive UI, so I'd like to fix this. Which of these should I do?

A - Revert the positions of the items on the navigation bar (Profile on right, home on left)

B - Have the default navigation be top on desktop

C - Move some things out of the profile menu into the navbar.

D - Revert the navbar entirely

Or give any other ideas you have. These changes were pushed early because I did not see any pushback early in the betas.

My only fear is that changing it back yet again will have ruined the muscle memory for both types of navigation.

I'll be releasing some betas soon to adjust navigation and take in more feedback before committing.

10
10 comments

  • I think the new layout is fine for mobile but should be reverted completely for desktop.

    From there (v1.28.1 basically) I suggest the following changes:

    • move the account switching to the profile menu in the top right
    • instead of clicking on your current account again in the account switcher to logout you should add a logout button in this menu
    • the "Accounts" menu entry could be renamed to "Manage Accounts" to make things clearer
    • move the Inbox, Profile and Saved menu buttons inplace of the Account switching
    • I think you can keep the profile picture as an icon for the profile link in this menu. For Inbox and Saved I didn't bother to change the icons for this mockup

    These changes would put all the functionality that is used more often closer together and reduce the amount of mouse travel.

  • This is my current layout idea for the navigation bar, let me know if it should be changed:

    Edit: I'll also add an option to change the position of the navigation based on screen size, which will be the default.

  • A & B I think. In general, desktop should be the primary target, as mobile is well covered by other apps.

    Also personally I would like there to be more emphasis on it being an actual landing page for an instance. Photon is the closest to being a full replacement for lemmy-ui, but the recent changes like moving the main instance logo away from the standard top left position makes it less suitable for this.

  • There are a couple things.

    Might be that I'm still used to old photon, but point A has been bothering me. I keep looking at the wrong side first.

    The other thing has been that Home was moved away from the sidebar, where all the other "browse x" buttons are. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, all/subscribed might deserve their own buttons there.

    The new layout as-is seems like an improvement for mobile, though I haven't spent much time to properly try it on my phone.

    Oh, and, now that I'm here, thanks for all the effort. Photon is just excellent.

    • I've taken in some of this feedback, let me know what you think of Photon v1.29.4

      • I noticed it right after writing the comment, now deployed. This immediately feels like it gets most of it right. I'll see if I have more thoughts later.

  • How can I see all my subscriptions in the WebApp?

    Under iOS I can’t find any button to show my subscription. Can somebody help me?

    • Communities > Location > Subscribed. I'll add easier access on mobile soon.

  • pin comments test

  • I would be in favour of A or D personally. However some of the new chances might be liked by some so having that as an option in the settings instead of legacy navigation might be in favour of some?

    Keep up the great work 🙌

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