Written by PatrickJ on Sunday, December 31, 2006

Site Updates – Heads Up


Just a quick heads-up for you. We’ve been doing some work on our site navigation and layout – in an effort to make things easier to find for you whenever you visit.

And we’re still working on things – so don’t be surprised to see quite a few things on the sidebars and category listings change over the next several days. Please be patient with us while we work to get the best end result.

For now, the main things we’ve modified are:

  • Added the Live Chat plugin back – for now, living at the bottom of the right sidebar.
  • Changed the order of several sidebar items – moved Categories and Recent Conversations up higher on each of the sidebars, so they’re quicker to get to.
  • Reduced the number of top-level categories (and we’ll probably still look to trim this further). 
  • Added some sub-categories, mainly under Reviews and Windows Mobile Software – so you can skip to a topic area more easily.  So when you go to the Reviews section as a whole, you then get a short menu of the Reviews sub-categories, for example.
  • Moved the JAMM search box right over by the Categories list.

Anyway, we’ve got lots more to do – but we hope some of this will ultimately make things better and more fun when you come to visit.  As you can see from the graphic, we’ve got the very best men working on this – Charlie and Emilio!

Please take a moment and let us know what you think … how we can improve things, do you want the Live Chat to stay, do the category listings make sense – all your feedback will be hugely appreciated – as our goal with all of this is to keep improving the site for you all.

Thanks …

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More in JAMM | 5 Comments


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5 Comments

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spmwinkel
Dec 31, 2006

Ok some comments. First of all, good progress!
Second – DE THE CATEGORY NAMES NEED TO BE IN ALL CAPS? :P
Third – do the Forums and Store need a title and a link under it? They both have just one link, so perhaps they could be combined under the Register / Login field? I don’t know how many freedom you guys have with that.

Hmm some way it just doesn’t seem logical at all, that Register/ Login section. Why? It also has RSS feeds. The Entries RSS doesn’t even work for me. And there already is an RSS-Subscribe section with an icon above it! I know these are different feed URL’s, but if it would be possible I think it would be nice to have them under the same section.

A suggestion – if you have this freedom.
Rename the Register / Login to Site Navigation, and make the following links under it:
Site Admin
Logout
Entries RSS (NOT the original that is in the Register/RSS section, but the on that is currently under the RSS-Subscribe section)
Comments RSS
WordPress.com
JAMM forums
JAMM store

Then you can get rid of:
1. the big RSS button on the top left
2. the Forums banner (on the right)
3. the JAMM Forums and JAMM Store titles

Finally – evn though the Pages title is at the total top right, it’s easy to _not_ notice it. Maybe give it the same lay out as the rest? (Underline the link and create line seperators between them)

Hehe lots of stuff.. Do with it what you like! I always thought the sidebars where a bit crowded so any effort to trim the sidebar content is much appreciated.


buzzard
Dec 31, 2006

Will the changes allow a full screen of the site regardless fo the settings on your PC? I have my PC set for 800×600 but if I want to “see” everything on the page I have to change my screen properties to something much smaller (e.g. 1024×768).


PatrickJ
Dec 31, 2006

Stefan – You’re Banned. :) That is far too many sensible and worthwhile suggestions for just one individual. Those are great – and several are on our agenda for sure – revamping the Register / Login / Meta area, probably losing the CAPS on top-level categories, streamlining of links for forums and store.

Buzzard – the sizing issue is one that may take longer for us. We’re aware of that one too though – and want to get that working better.

Both of you – thanks so much for your good thoughts and questions!


PatrickJ
Dec 31, 2006

Stefan – small adjustments made already – CAPS experiment on top-level categories ditched. Links listings on right-hand sidebar for forums and store dropped. Happy Holidays …


spmwinkel
Jan 1, 2007

I really like the categories in small font. Looks very nice now, maybe also because the line seperators are gone too. Maybe also see how that looks for the other links? Gives the site a less crowded look I think.
I also like that the Live Chat is now visible when I load JAMM, without scrolling. Easier to see if one of you guys is online too. ;)

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