Re: [WSG] linked list alternative to nested menus

[Paul Novitski]

At 01:40 PM 3/10/2006, Terrence Wood wrote:
1) The semantic relationship of parent menu item to sub-menu is 
obscured if not lost.
Provide a structural label for top-level navigation, this will make 
the relationship far more explicit. Using the labels from you main 
navigation device as headings for the sub-menus will also serve to 
strengthen the relationship.


True.  And you've helped me fill in a gap:

One difference between nesting and linking lists is the way in which 
parents & children are linked bidirectionally.  Their relationship is 
always clear in a nested list purely from the structural position of 
the child inside the parent.  To get from the child to the parent you 
simply go up or outward one level.


With linked lists, the connection from parent to child is explicit 
through the parent item's anchor to the child, and the headline of 
each child menu can be hyperlinked back to the parent item.


So what I proposed as a singly-linked list easiliy becomes doubly-linked.

Regards,
Paul 


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Re: [WSG] linked list alternative to nested menus

[Terrence Wood]

Paul, I like your solution.

1) The semantic relationship of parent menu item to sub-menu is 
obscured if not lost.
Provide a structural label for top-level navigation, this will make the 
relationship far more explicit. Using the labels from you main 
navigation device as headings for the sub-menus will also serve to 
strengthen the relationship.


2) Because the sub-menu is not structurally nested within the parent 
item, some visual layouts of the menu will be difficult or impossible, 
such as the nested folder metaphor.


You can enhance the layout with a little javascript to achieve any 
layout you can imagine, you just need to account for the non-javascript 
design.


kind regards
Terrence Wood.

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[WSG] linked list alternative to nested menus

[Paul Novitski]

I'm contemplating an alternative to the usual nested-list nav menu 
structure and solicit your opinions.


First, here's a standard nested menu.  Opinions vary as to whether 
it's kosher to include all the sub-menus nested inside the parent and 
conceal the inactive sub-menus from visual users.  I've included all 
the sub-menus in this markup for the sake of illustration:


Navigation

Home
Products

Widgets
Whatsits
Thingummies


Philosophies

Tao
Zen




This makes semantic sense but could wear on your patience if you're 
hearing the page through a screen-reader.  If you activate a link in 
the parent menu and bring up a new page that again contains the 
navigation menu, how do you know that a sub-menu exists inside the 
parent item?  Do you have to listen through all the menu options 
you've already heard in order to discover and hear the new sub-menu?


As an alternative, I'm considering a series of linked lists instead 
of one complex nested list.  In the following example, the Products 
and Philosophies sub-menus appear after, not nested inside, the 
top-level menu.  The Products and Philosophies items in the top-level 
menu now contain URI fragment identifiers (same-page anchors) linking 
to their sub-menus farther down the page.  If you've navigated to the 
Products home page, I'd also add a skip link to the Products sub-menu 
so you wouldn't be forced to hear the top-level nav menu again:


Skip to Products

Navigation

Home
Products
Philosophies



Products

Widgets
Whatsits
Thingummies




Philosophies

Tao
Zen




Advantages:

1) faster & easier for non-visual users to navigate (I hope).

2) lends itself easily to visual layouts in which the sub-menu lies 
in a column or row adjacent to the parent menu.


3) sub-menus can be displayed or concealed for visual users in the 
same ways as nested sub-menus are.


Disadvantages:

1) The semantic relationship of parent menu item to sub-menu is 
obscured if not lost.


2) Because the sub-menu is not structurally nested within the parent 
item, some visual layouts of the menu will be difficult or 
impossible, such as the nested folder metaphor.


Your comments?

Paul

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