Home button for Harmony - Yey or Nay

omega

I have no home button.
I am lost at sea.
Where is my Anchor.
Oh bring back my anchor to me
Bring back oh bring back
Oh bring back my home button to me to me!

Now that I have teste dout the sticky toolbar option in theme settings @julian @baris I think the actual problem is not a floating tool bar yes/no per se, but the lack of a Home Button is the real issue - or that is my experience, this is a UI fail IMHO that needs to be addressed.

If the toolbar had a home button, then the toolbar would hold more fundamental value as a primary element, but it's a secondary element as is implemented.

To answer the question should it be there based on current beta, no, because it has no home button.

Whether breaking home button navigation convention is the result of a bold move or an oversight, either way, it surely has to be restored.

No home button is like having no North Star, or N on the compass!

Surely I am not the only one who gets a bit sea sick and start to feel somewhat adrift, no?

Bottom line:

Harmony needs a persistent and static home button on all viewports, somewhere somehow.

Yey or Nay?

julian

I have not missed it. The forum index is tied to /categories here, and so that is accessible from the overflow menu on mobile.

If it's not set to /categories, one can still access it via the logo/site title, or add it to the navigation menu via ACP.

omega

@julian said in Home button for Harmony - Yey or Nay:

I have not missed it. The forum index is tied to /categories here, and so that is accessible from the overflow menu on mobile.

I'm only vibing off community.nodebb for harmony theme testing as a user. I'm not looking at the ACP.

I like my home button to be always visible always.

That is not the case in beta. Two clicks or more to find the home button, confusing. I don't find that acceptable.

Primarily I'm on desktop with collapsed view.

If it's not set to /categories, one can still access it via the logo/site title, or add it to the navigation menu via ACP.

Add as a custom button in ACP > Navigation is that it?

julian

If you're on desktop, then the top left link is the home page (/categories)

exodo

I agree with you. The lack of home button or anchor makes the navigation annoying, if you are on a long thread going to the top to look for a home button it can take many time

crazycells

@julian is there an easy way to add "categories" icon (or maybe favicon with custom route) to the sticky header? I mean to the left-most side of "mark unread" "watching" "sort by" etc...

omega

@crazycells

The natural place to put a home button is above categories, as the simple quick fix, for desktop.

There it will remain always visible collapsed or expanded in the top right.

omega

@julian said in Home button for Harmony - Yey or Nay:

If you're on desktop, then the top left link is the home page (/categories)

DO you mean the categories button or the logo-link?

See, (/categories) like all the other core buttons is a core button, it should not double job as a home button, because it will also appear in other locations, so now we have a core button with an ambiguous function - if that is what you mean, this is bad design.

Further, the situation creates user specified homepage logic follow through as dysfunctional, it's broken the idea.

For e.g. my preference is always for (/recent).

I like the home button to take me to recents posts from where ever I have navigated.

Presently, it's shown at the top in a off set position, that disappears with the slightest of scroll. Yes, frustrating. Very.

That settings has no real purpose, because within hardly a few clicks, the home button / logo / link is gone!

Image B is not anchored. It's need either a cap or the simple solution od a logo home button above categories.

This virtually timeless convention is good:

because it's highly frictionless
Is a deeply ingrained muscle memory/ user reflex.

julian

Home page is configurable, but it is set to the category listing on this site. It is also the default.

We could add a home button but it'd be a bit superfluous since you'd then have complaints about two buttons that go to the same place (by default)

julian

Let me put it more plainly;

On your site, you can set the homepage to /recent if you wish
On your site, you can change the icon of the first item to a little house, if you so wish.

<baris>

Gonna agree with @julian on this one, it literally takes 2 seconds to do that.

And it will look like

omega

@julian @baris

Yes, so there is a solution, but let's not repurpose core UI buttons or ask the user to reach, for many reasonable reasons, becasue this might require a bit more value added in:

Create a new dedicated "core" button called HOME Button

Give it a little more feature piazza (like categories iucons)

allow image upload
allow collapsed size + expanded size spec.
whatever else might be required

I like modularity a lot, but... can you see how none of the other existing users-posts thought about "custom", I know I didn't, and we should know their backend and yet, it's one of those things that should be default out of the box, but it has caused cognitive dissonance and that also means community needs it too but I don't have ACP access... we all have hang up and learned things form Persona (and established web navigation) and the site title in the top menu bar provided this function, and it's a net loss on first impression and then further use, and users can't rectify only the admin, so it's "frustrating" form a UI/UX POV.

It's always important to remember IMHO You are not your customer and what "literally take 2 seconds" to you, is simply not apparent or accessible to there rest of the dopey world out there hitting your site etc. for the first and many times.

Nowt queer as folk as the English say, but there is no place like home either.

omega

@baris ...then do it!

<baris>

@omega done

omega

@baris

It behaves as a home button (goes to /recents as per user settings for e.g. for me)
no way to navigate to categories

Did you mean to remove /categories core button?

<baris>

We could add a home button but it'd be a bit superfluous since you'd then have complaints about two buttons that go to the same place (by default)

This, adding a home and categories results in two buttons that do that same thing. It applies to all the items if you set your home page to recent then you will have 2 buttons that take you to recent etc.

omega

@baris

There are two competing settings is there not:

What an Admin specifies as home page (site wide)
What a user specifies as home page

With respect to my user experience here:

admin: /categories
user: /recents

The Home icon button and categories button are no longer doing the same thing.

Thus my suggestion to add in a dedicated HOME button (with bells and whistles) to carrying out the same duty as the brand/anchor and give it more features.

Another why is because again the harmony theme brand/anchor get's disappeared too fast and the user loses their home button based on their preference, btw I've only looked up the element name in inspector, so maybe anchors my point better!

Anchor / Home button... we're almost there!

This nav has needed more rigorous consideration, and so this topic!

The navigation experience has IMHO moved in a more positive direction.