Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

[Vic Roma]

Good point on the white space, Vic. And the stuff that is now taking up space, like the dedication, picture, and prayer, would go nicely on an About page.

 

So, what if the menu was changed to something like:

 

• About
• Forum
• Documentation
  • Bullnose FAQ's
  • Calibration....
  • Cooling Systems
  • etc

At the moment, the hamburger menu is too full and disorganized, so a refined menu is a good start. A clean layout could look like this:

[Vic Roma]

At the moment, the hamburger menu is too full and disorganized, so a refined menu is a good start.

A clean layout could look like this:

Back to the white space and the page header, I count three search bars on each page, where there needs only to be one.

Of the two menus at the top of the page, the first is obscured by the hamburger menu which spans the width of the page:

...and the third:

These add weight to the page, reduce load speed (increase data consumption) and add unnecessary redundancy.

Can you modify the code to remove two? These small tweaks can help improve the functionality of your site without too much redesign.

 

[Gary Lewis]

At the moment, the hamburger menu is too full and disorganized, so a refined menu is a good start.

A clean layout could look like this:

I see what you are saying on the clean look, and that makes sense. However, I'll have to play around with it on my test forum to see that it can even be done. Or, maybe I should say "can be done for mobile devices".

At one point the hamburger was forced when the website detected a mobile device. But that may be dependent upon the "theme" that is chosen. And Weebly doesn't provide a table that I can find which describes the bits and pieces of each theme. So I have to try them and see what they create.

But, you've given me a lot to think about. Thanks!

[Gary Lewis]

Back to the white space and the page header, I count three search bars on each page, where there needs only to be one.

Of the two menus at the top of the page, the first is obscured by the hamburger menu which spans the width of the page:

...and the third:

These add weight to the page, reduce load speed (increase data consumption) and add unnecessary redundancy.

Can you modify the code to remove two? These small tweaks can help improve the functionality of your site without too much redesign.

When in the forum and not editing I think there are these search bars:

• Google Custom Search: That's the one that is partially obscured in your pic. It can come out - when I figure out how I put it in.

• Search Garagemahal: This one needs to stay as it searches the whole of the website, meaning forum and documentation.

• Empty Search Bar: This is the one below the pic at present and above the page listings. It searches the forum only, and needs to stay. But it would be nice if there was a way to tell people what it is, like "Forum Search".

• Google Custom Search: Same as the top one but at the bottom of the page. It can come out - when I figure out how I put it in.

[Vic Roma]

When in the forum and not editing I think there are these search bars:

• Google Custom Search: That's the one that is partially obscured in your pic. It can come out - when I figure out how I put it in.

• Search Garagemahal: This one needs to stay as it searches the whole of the website, meaning forum and documentation.

• Empty Search Bar: This is the one below the pic at present and above the page listings. It searches the forum only, and needs to stay. But it would be nice if there was a way to tell people what it is, like "Forum Search".

• Google Custom Search: Same as the top one but at the bottom of the page. It can come out - when I figure out how I put it in.

- "Google Custom Search: That's the one that is partially obscured in your pic. It can come out - when I figure out how I put it in."

Delete the code that controls it.

- "Empty Search Bar: This is the one below the pic at present and above the page listings. It searches the forum only, and needs to stay. But it would be nice if there was a way to tell people what it is, like "Forum Search"."

This might help: https://editortricks.weebly.com/how-to-add-a-placeholder-to-google-custom-search-box.html

If not, search Google for "add placeholder google search box".

[Gary Lewis]

- "Google Custom Search: That's the one that is partially obscured in your pic. It can come out - when I figure out how I put it in."

Delete the code that controls it.

- "Empty Search Bar: This is the one below the pic at present and above the page listings. It searches the forum only, and needs to stay. But it would be nice if there was a way to tell people what it is, like "Forum Search"."

This might help: https://editortricks.weebly.com/how-to-add-a-placeholder-to-google-custom-search-box.html

If not, search Google for "add placeholder google search box".

Vic - I just took the Google search out of the header and footer. See what you think.

However, adding text around the unlabeled search on the forum isn't as easy. That's Nabble area and things don't work quite the same. But I'll do some searching to see what I can find. And, I'll post in the Nabble Help forum.

Thanks.

[Vic Roma]

Vic - I just took the Google search out of the header and footer. See what you think.

However, adding text around the unlabeled search on the forum isn't as easy. That's Nabble area and things don't work quite the same. But I'll do some searching to see what I can find. And, I'll post in the Nabble Help forum.

Thanks.

That's better but there's duplicate Facebook code hidden beneath the Google search bar you removed.

As for the search box, you said both remaining need to stay; one for the site, the other just for the forums?

Isn't the site-wide search button sufficient to pick up any keywords in the Forum section?

[PetesPonies]

The theory here is that the forum page itself would lose the "pic of the month/year/decade" that currently shows Cory's truck, as that pic would move to the new home page, making the load of the forum pages that much faster.

I think it's time for a new Bullnose truck picture...lol. I'm sure somebody else on here has a nice Bullnose pic they'd like to share?

Gary I can't comment on the forum too much until I actually start using it after the changes. My forum usage is 99% on a PC, so any issues showing up on phones or iPads, etc are pretty much irrelevant to me. I'm all for improving everybody's experience, but I currently don't have any complaints with the format.

I read the forum on my phone sometimes, but I don't post with the phone...not very often at least.

I'm 100% with you. I don't do this crap on a phone :) I sit at the PC . .everything is just fine :)

[Gary Lewis]

That's better but there's duplicate Facebook code hidden beneath the Google search bar you removed.

As for the search box, you said both remaining need to stay; one for the site, the other just for the forums?

Isn't the site-wide search button sufficient to pick up any keywords in the Forum section?

Vic - I really thought I'd replied to this, but it doesn't appear so. Sorry.

I did find the extraneous Facebook code and took it out, but along the way I deleted the other one at the top by accident. Let's see if the one at the bottom is adequate, although I need to add some cushion below it and haven't figured out how.

As for the searches, I added "Search Documentation" to the top one and Search Forum to the other. That's because that's exactly what they do - at the moment. The Freefind search doesn't search the forum as I have it excluded, and the forum search doesn't search the rest of the site as it comes from Nabble.

However, my friend that is a Nabble guru is coaching me on the Freefind search, and is saying that I have too much excluded. So I'm going to work on that a bit and see if I can get Freefind to find the forum stuff as well. Then we can have only one search option.

[Gary Lewis]

Vic - I really thought I'd replied to this, but it doesn't appear so. Sorry.I did find the extraneous Facebook code and took it out, but along the way I deleted the other one at the top by accident. Let's see if the one at the bottom is adequate, although I need to add some cushion below it and haven't figured out how.As for the searches, I added "Search Documentation" to the top one and Search Forum to the other. That's because that's exactly what they do - at the moment. The Freefind search doesn't search the forum as I have it excluded, and the forum search doesn't search the rest of the site as it comes from Nabble.However, my friend that is a Nabble guru is coaching me on the Freefind search, and is saying that I have too much excluded. So I'm going to work on that a bit and see if I can get Freefind to find the forum stuff as well. Then we can have only one search option.

Oh yes: You may notice that there are actually two Freefind search bars at the top of the page. One, like the previous Facebook stuff, gets hidden by the menu, and I don't know how to fix that. I've added plenty of line feeds "

 

" but that didn't really fix it.Having said that, perhaps it will fix itself if/when I find the right Weebly theme that doesn't have the hamburger going away.