My second comment to the list so have somewhat limited knowledge of "best practices." I will be brief.
I understand this is a test site and not compete in all details. I am not certain, but suspect you will have just as much depth in most other "department" sections as you did in the Community Development section. if so, you have problems of usability and user interest in pursuing to the depths.
1. The site is designed from the standpoint of the departments of the city - not from the true customers viewpoint. Ask citizens what they want to know and the site navigation could then be broken into perhaps 7-8 main categories that could be done as global nav at the top.
An example is the staff listings - these are at best a vanity section and of minimal value. Either eliminate or group all under a catch-all main section like you might on a business website. A city is a business.
Similarly - the forms for filing apps, refunds, making payments - might benefit from a common point of entry - right at the top. Your global Nav link "I Want To.." might be the route, but that title leaves me wondering a bit what it really means.
2. The "best-practices" gurus say no more than three pages of depth - you're at five on the left side menus. That is too deep. I know it is possible to use the depth menu like this to jump to detailed sections easily, but I had serious problems with that menu nest in Safari, IE5.5, and NN7 on a Mac. I kept falling off the menu and having to start over. Nearly 75% of the time in trying to get to level 5 was a failure.
The flyout menu failed totally in IE 5.5 on the Mac. It worked "ok" in Safari and NN7.
3. The "one-size-fits-all" website seldom does. I would advise you and your client to go for several websites - inter-linked of course, but distinctly different. Why? There is too much subdividing of data for the present "portal" site. You either have to back up and break it up into different sites - or break the data into different customer-oriented " bits/sections. The separate library site is an example.
4. The global nav at top is a problem. In Safari and NN& on a Mac the drop down for "I want to.." appeared about 3-4 pixels down into the pale green section AND I could not reach them with the mouse before they disappeared. In IE5.5 on Mac the same menu appeared at the top of the white center section and was also impossible to "reach" with the mouse before it disappeared....
Will
<<inline: SigThkLong200.jpg>>
William H. Jensen, Jr.
67 Leninski Prospect
Apartment #174, 5th Floor
Moscow, Russia, 117296
Tel: (7)(095) 137-6546
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William H. Jensen
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On Nov 8, 2004, at 9:58 PM, Pringle, Ron wrote:
Hello all-
I am in the process of redeveloping a large, content heavy municipal site.
There is an extraordinarily large amount of information on the current site,
and a large number of departments that need to be represented in the
navigation.
I've used the Son Of Suckerfish code to build out a flyout menu system.
Works great, looks nice. However, some of the menus get as many as five
layers deep. I'm concerned about usability (by regular and impaired users),
especially on small screen real estate. My biggest problem with it is the
depth of the submenus, how easy it is to slip off a menu 3 layers deep and
lose your place and the fact that the menus don't remain visible for a few
seconds after mousing off them.
I'm looking for a review of the navigation along with opinions and
suggestions, within the following constraints:
1. This site is templated via a single master template in DW. I would prefer
NOT to have to use more than the one template for the site, as it will
exponentially increase my workload with each additional section/template.
2. I've looked at the vertically expanding/collapsing menu systems, and have
pretty much ruled them out for use on my site for a variety of reasons.
Ideas, criticisms, suggestions and opinions welcomed.
http://www.aurora-il.org/testsite/index.htm
Only the first 3 menu items in the vertical nav have been flushed out.
Regards,
Ron
p.s. for a good laugh, look at the current site at http://www.aurora-il.org
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