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On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 7:15 PM, Michael Schofield <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>
> Q1. How complicated is it to change all 3 column guides to a single-column
> left/right-nav layout?
>
> A little. You can force the entire group [or all groups] to use a single
> template, which is a huge time saver, except your guides' middle and right
> columns will be in "hidden" columns rather than forced to collapse into a
> single column. This was pretty confusing at first. We were afraid we
> actually lost content during the migration. You will need to manually hit
> every guide and change the layout to single-column, but that's just a click
> of the button. If you have 400+ guides, though, that's 400+ clicks.
>

Alas, yes. Once we realized this was happening, our devs hashed it out and
will be rolling out a fix to the migration script so that this won't happen
again.

Q2. Three-columns or single column?
> Single column. Users scan, and they scan the top and left-most portions of
> the screen. Anything in the middle and to the right is lost.  Also, three
> columns on a responsive site is a little weird, because content is pretty
> squishy; on tablets you might have pretty narrow left and right columns.
>

Actually, when you view a 3-column layout on a smaller screen, it scales
down to a single column.  If you're seeing otherwise, can you send us some
examples in case this is a bug we need to fix?  Thanks. :)  The key here,
of course, is to have the most important information in the left-hand
column, and not to have too many boxes on a single page.


> Q5. Has anyone split the main content column into two smaller columns?
> LG2 makes it crazy easy to change number and percentage-based widths of
> the columns. So you could still use the tabs-across-the-top template and
> create a little 33% wide left "sidebar" column and a 66% wide right main
> column.
>

One slight caution here:  if you add a second content column to a side-nav
layout and the guide author wants to display nav pills for the page's
boxes, only the boxes from the first content column will be displayed as
pills. This is by design, but we've filed it as a known issue.


>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Blake Galbreath
> Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2014 6:37 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides v2 - Templates and Nav
>
> I have always thought that left-nav was the UX standard for left-to-right
> languages (as opposed to Arabic, eg.: http://www.france24.com/ar/).
>
> Personally, I feel that right-nav makes more sense across the board, due
> to the fact that it is less distance to travel for right-handed people. But
> the convention seems pretty set in stone. I am also not sure how screen
> readers deal with right-nav - although i am guessing that there is no
> problem there programming wise.
>
> Blake
>
> On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Brad Coffield <
> [log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > Benjamin: "Unfortunately we have authors who want *three* columns plus
> > left-nav..." LOL
> >
> > Margaret: Love the floating nav on that page. It's exciting that we'll
> > be able to leverage Bootstrap with our guides now. Moving the entire
> > library website to libguides CMS is looking more and more promising.
> >
> >
> > Some more thoughts:
> >
> > I'm no UX expert but is it generally agreed that left-nav is the much
> > better choice? It seems like it to me. Given current web wide
> > conventions etc.
> >
> > One big issue to switching to left-nav in v2 is the amount of work
> > it's going to take everyone to convert all guides to the new layout.
> > Which is one of those things that both shouldn't matter (when looking
> > at it in a principledness way - that is, "Whatever is best for the
> > patrons! No matter
> > what!) but also does matter (in a practical way - that is, "OMG we are
> > all so busy being awesome").
> >
> > But part of me, when looking at other people's guides and my own,
> > wonders if three columns isn't just a little TOO much for the user.
> > How is one supposed to scan the page? What's the prioritized
> > information? For a couple years now I've been eschewing three columns
> > whenever possible. Do others agree that three columns can be info
> overload?
> >
> > Brad
> >
> > On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 4:32 PM, Benjamin Florin <
> > [log in to unmask]>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > We've been tinkering with our LibGuides template in preparation for
> > > an eventual redesign of our site and guides, e.g.:
> > >
> > >     http://libguides.bc.edu/libraries/babst/staff
> > >
> > > Some of our guide authors weren't happy with the LibGuides
> > > side-navigation's single-column limitation, so we made our own
> > > template, moved {{guide_nav}} off to a left column, and wrote our
> > > own styles to
> > make
> > > the default top-nav display as left-nav. We've found that a 50/50 or
> > 75/25
> > > split next to the left nav looks pretty good.
> > >
> > > Unfortunately we have authors who want *three* columns plus left-nav...
> > >
> > > In general the LibGuides templating has felt modern and easy to work
> > with.
> > >
> > > Ben
> > >
> > >
> > > On Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 3:18 PM, Brad Coffield <
> > > [log in to unmask]>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Hi all,
> > > >
> > > > I'm finally diving into our Libguides v2 migration and I'm
> > > > wondering if anyone would be willing to share their
> > > > experience/choices regarding templating. (Or even some code!)
> > > >
> > > > I'm thinking left-nav is the way to go. Has anyone split the main
> > content
> > > > column into two smaller columns? Done that with a
> > > > column-width-spanning
> > > box
> > > > atop the main content area? Any other neato templates ideas?
> > > >
> > > > We are in the process of building a "style guide" for all
> > > > libguides
> > > authors
> > > > to use. And also some sort of peer-review process to help enforce
> > > > the
> > > style
> > > > guide. I'm thinking we are going to want to restrict all authors
> > > > to left-nav templates but perhaps the ideal solution would be to
> > > > require left-nav of all but to have a variety of custom left-nav
> > > > templates to choose from.
> > > >
> > > > Any thoughts are much appreciated!
> > > >
> > > > Warm regards,
> > > >
> > > > Brad
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Brad Coffield, MLIS
> > > > Assistant Information and Web Services Librarian Saint Francis
> > > > University
> > > > 814-472-3315
> > > > [log in to unmask]
> > > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Brad Coffield, MLIS
> > Assistant Information and Web Services Librarian Saint Francis
> > University
> > 814-472-3315
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Blake L. Galbreath
> Systems Librarian
> Eastern Oregon University
> One University Boulevard
> La Grande, OR 97850
> (541) 962.3017
> [log in to unmask]
>