2012.10.04
New navigation: what do you think?
New roanoke.com navigation toolbars
Our development team has been working hard, and here is the first peek at the navigation of the new roanoke.com. Click to enlarge the photo, take a look and tell us what you think.
What you’ll see is the main navigation (top bar) with the sub-navigation bar below. (For instance, in the first line, you’ll see that the News tab brings up the light blue bar below). These navigation bars will be on every page throughout the new site and are designed to make it easier to find and access the stories, photos and blogs you look for.
The top-level navigation bar will feature five primary news topics. If you hover over one of these sections, you’ll find a sub-navigation bar highlighting more specific content. This new navigation puts the most popular sections just a click away from anywhere in the site. For example, if you’re looking for Virginia Tech football highlights, hover over Sports and can click directly to Virginia Tech.
Within the navigation, we’ve also anchored some tools such as submit a news tip and share a photo. The search tool is also prominently positioned within the top nav bar, making it easy to access from any page within the new roanoke.com.
What pages of roanoke.com do you visit the most? As you check out this image, think of that and see if you can navigate to those pages.
We welcome your feedback.
There’s a lot going on in these bars. I’m a little worried that they will be intimidating. Maybe I need to see them in the context of a whole page ….
Comment by Dan — October 5, 2012 @ 12:15 pm
Way. Too. Busy!
Comment by Dave — October 6, 2012 @ 4:01 pm
Thanks for the feedback. To clarify, these bars will not appear together on the same page. There will be one main nav bar and only when you hover over a topic, you will see the sub-nav. We included all of the bars here to give you a better sense of how we’ve organized different topic areas.
Comment by karennag — October 7, 2012 @ 3:19 pm
I work with blind people using screen readers on the web. Will accomodations be made on this website for easier navigation?
Comment by Irene — October 10, 2012 @ 7:00 pm
I like them. They seem to reflect the way I break down the news/website info better than the current one.
Comment by FincastleMom — October 11, 2012 @ 12:16 pm
I like it. At first glance it is a little busy, but there’s a lot that needs to fit, and I think I’ll adapt to it quickly. The font is crisp and clean, which I really appreciate.
Were it up to me I might arrange things a little differently, but it’s not, and so I will adjust to that as well. On the whole, I think I will find roanoke.com much easier to navigate once the new bar is implemented.
Comment by Laura — October 11, 2012 @ 5:57 pm
I like it! When will it be implemented?
Comment by Dennis — October 13, 2012 @ 6:50 am
Definitely too busy. Look at the Washington Post online… that’s much cleaner and just as thorough.
Comment by bryan — October 14, 2012 @ 10:39 am
I don’t like it. It’s way too busy. Keep it simple – you have elderly subscribers.
Comment by Dee — November 5, 2012 @ 3:48 pm
Way too busy. Also on accessing the election ballot, it was giving unnecessary paper.
Comment by Reb Holmes — November 5, 2012 @ 6:49 pm
I like that one is able to better define what sort of news storys one wants to receive. It is not too busy for me but I’m not elderly and I understand their concern. Something interactive like a “trending” box which is different than breaking, story would be nice. As to your advice received regarding the Post-PLEASE do NOT copy them. The Post is Balkinized to the max. I therefore have to resort to word searches to find stories AND therefore they are usually my 3rd or 4th choice when I have that kind of time.
Comment by Kent — November 9, 2012 @ 12:56 pm