Create universal navigation block

[GarthDB]

That can be included in all custom post designs.

[Moodycomputer]

This should probably be something really unobtrusive. Maybe a small header paired with a more robust footer?

[GarthDB]

Exactly what I was thinking. @mrondina pointed out that a footer would be easier to make responsive.

[Moodycomputer]

That usually true, and a footer would almost never detract from the custom design of the article. (at least not above the fold)

[GarthDB]

Summary from a chat with @terracomma:

• Visual thumb with each custom article design could be used in universal nav for next and previous articles
• Add colophon section
  • Give credit to designer (about the designers)
  • Cite assets and sources

[timjenkins]

What are your thoughts on the footer acting as the nav, with the header just being the logo (or logo+text) with an anchor link to the footer navigation? keeps things clean and small up top, and scales to mobile perfectly.

or with the ubiquitous hamburger...

To integrate into custom posts, the background could be transparent, and the color of the elements could be set by the designer maybe?

[GarthDB]

@timjenkins That could work. I feel like neither the + nor hamburger communicates what is happening when they tap it though. Plus seems like your are adding something and hamburger is for a menu popout. I think Luke Wroblewski recommends something like that, but I think it might be misleading.

What about a down arrow and a scroll animation to help direct what is happening?

I like the idea of the customization. Maybe we default it to something safe, and let them override.

I think the black bar (not too large) could be the least obtrusive to design, and overridden easily like on http://opensourcedesign.is/blogging_about/using-github-for-design-collaboration/

Thanks for jumping on the discussion.

[timjenkins]

good points! Do you think the arrow down would be an adequate indicator that that's where the nav is? or does it need to be labeled with a bit of text ("menu" or "nav"). I try to be as minimal as possible, but often err on assuming the user understands what I mean.

[GarthDB]

I'd say minimal is better in this case. We want to highlight the article and the custom design, not detract.

[sachabest]

for the universal nav block, should we show the down arrow (in place of hamburger) even on desktop? Or extend a full (more normalized) desktop nav

[GarthDB]

The hamburger could be a good placeholder for now - let's start with the simple and move from there.

[sachabest]

So even on desktop, the user will have to click the dropdown to see available links? There will be a lot of empty space between the logo and the dropdown in that case

[GarthDB]

Sounds good for now. It's a mobile first type of mentality. We can work on something more desktop friendly after this is done. Minimal viable product ftw!

[GarthDB]

Things are closer to this with the addition of the next and previous articles and view all articles. We can either keep just that or we can all the links in the footer.