Hey all. Pretty awesome that the mega menus are here, because now the team can go work on other stuff! Woo!
That said, and speaking from the perspective of a web designer (since 1992, when there barely was a Web), I have some quibbles.
Before now the menus were text, and had fly-out secondary menus, so (if you were aces with your mouse) you could drop down to Classes, then to Warlock, then click and go straight there. Of course, it was hard sometimes to keep your mouse on the menu, and if you didn't, poof, they disappeared and you had to start all over. Very annoying.
So, I was very excited when I heard there were going to be mega menus. I worked in Higher Ed for a long time as a web designer, and universities are notorious for having too much to show on any one page. Mega menus have been a great solution for that space. Here's a great article by a guy who does lots of web-based UI stuff (love him or hate him) Nielsen, on mega menus: Mega Menus Work Well for Site Navigation
But in the last dev update, when Adam Bradford showed off the menus, and now that I see them in actual practice above, I'm disappointed.
These aren't mega menus chock full of information, thoughtfully laid out so I can see what I want and get there with one drop down and one click. Instead, these are giant graphical buttons, with very little going for them except some cool zoom effects and a very memorizable location (Classes will always be the second giant square on the Game Rules menu, right?). To get anywhere, I have to click, then wait for the page to load, then navigate that page, often scrolling around to find what I want. I mean, hard-to-target-mousing aside, the previous version let me get to Warlock much quicker than this one. The same was true for other places I wanted to go.
Mega menus done right could have solved this problem without making another. I can definitely hit my mousing target on these menus! But these hardly help me get where I want to go.
But, whatever, I guess. I'm much more excited for source control and more organizational features for my characters, so I can probably let this go (now that I've made my stink here).
I was just hoping for more. Thanks for all the hard work you do, staff, I appreciate it!
My only issue with the new menus is that under tools, there's an "Encounter Builder" that doesn't go anywhere...
Teasing aside, I think they look really nice! I agree that it would be nice to have additional options to reduce the number of clicks, but I'm trying to imagine what that would actually look like. Maybe like another horizontal context bar appearing at the bottom that would just have small buttons with the name of each race / class? Ultimately though, you have to draw a line somewhere, because you could make the same argument for sub-races / sub-classes.
What I like about the current design is that they've chosen the size of the button (I'm assuming) because of their metrics tracking which pages are viewed most. I'm not sure though if I like the term "Game Rules", as there are a lot of game rules in the PHB & DMG not found under this section, but I don't have a better suggestion at the moment either.
My only issue with the new menus is that under tools, there's an "Encounter Builder" that doesn't go anywhere...
Teasing aside, I think they look really nice! I agree that it would be nice to have additional options to reduce the number of clicks, but I'm trying to imagine what that would actually look like. Maybe like another horizontal context bar appearing at the bottom that would just have small buttons with the name of each race / class? Ultimately though, you have to draw a line somewhere, because you could make the same argument for sub-races / sub-classes.
What I like about the current design is that they've chosen the size of the button (I'm assuming) because of their metrics tracking which pages are viewed most. I'm not sure though if I like the term "Game Rules", as there are a lot of game rules in the PHB & DMG not found under this section, but I don't have a better suggestion at the moment either.
I remember one of Adam Bradford's twitch streams talking about the encounter builder. Apparently it'll be coming out sometime this year.
Fellow web designer here. I tend to agree. This feels like one step forward two steps back. What you described was basically my expectation of a megamenu as well. My daily use involves navigating to things like classes or races, and getting to that content takes now more time because of the extra clicking and browsing required.
The "Sources" in general is a good idea, I just don't entirely agree with its usability either. Only showing five books per slide is likely to get lengthy and slow to browse considering the amount of books is only going up. One could argue with the expanding amount of content they want to encourage people to use the search more, but that is another element with its own set of problems that could also use some updating at some point.
In more technical terms I'm also not a fan of how delayed the hover menu appearing is because it makes it feel clunky, slow and non-responsive. It doesn't really matter how fast a page loads if the UX (user experience) itself feels slow. I realize there are delays you may want to implement so the menu doesn't instantly disappear when you accidentally move your cursor away and whatnot, but there are better ways of addressing those issues.
Remember that quote from Valve's Gabe Newell saying "Piracy is a service problem"? Well, I've bought all the books I need in both physical and digital dndbeyond form, but these sorts of usability issues can easily push me towards 3rd party sites that do a better job with ease of access.
I'm generally resistant to change related to tech, moreso for reference materials. That said, I don't enjoy scrolling through the megamenus.
As others have noted, the fly-out menus could be finicky to use, but despite that they seemed to function more quickly than these do.
The large graphics don't seem to serve a purpose other than for looks. Invariably, that usually just translates to "longer time to load". At the very least, I have to scroll and hunt for the words, since I don't like relying on imagery as I scan websites.
All of this is a qubble. It's notnterrible or anything. overall, I absolutely love Beyond. It's beyond awsome to have the material at my fingertips.
Just a follow-up. Today I used the "Sources" menu to access Dragon Heist. It was less than satisfactory. Previously, I'd pull down the menu, go to Adventures, carefully navigate the fly out menu down to Dragon Heist and click. Now, I pull open the mega menu, tried using my trackpad to scroll, but it leaps to the last set of sources. Other way, leaps to the first. I had to mouse over to the arrows (or the dots, I guess) to scroll to the third set of images, and click on Dragon Heist there. It wasn't actually easier than the previous method.
Maybe, if the scrolling was free, rather than by set, it might work better? Maybe if I had a notched scroll wheel, rather than a trackpad... but whatever. The Sources menu isn't better than the previous system, imho.
Again, like others here, I really love DDB, and plan to continue using it regardless, but I think (I hope) the developers want feedback. So here it is.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
ey/em/eirs, or they/them works, too (just not he). Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands. I love it so.
I am not a fan of the new menu layout. It's more work to get to where I want to go and eats up a big chunk of the screen. I like simple and efficient. Some of the issues you're talking about will be addressed though.
New! Go to the official feedback thread instead: https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/d-d-beyond-feedback/34115-mega-menu-feedback-review-and-next-steps
Hey all. Pretty awesome that the mega menus are here, because now the team can go work on other stuff! Woo!
That said, and speaking from the perspective of a web designer (since 1992, when there barely was a Web), I have some quibbles.
Before now the menus were text, and had fly-out secondary menus, so (if you were aces with your mouse) you could drop down to Classes, then to Warlock, then click and go straight there. Of course, it was hard sometimes to keep your mouse on the menu, and if you didn't, poof, they disappeared and you had to start all over. Very annoying.
So, I was very excited when I heard there were going to be mega menus. I worked in Higher Ed for a long time as a web designer, and universities are notorious for having too much to show on any one page. Mega menus have been a great solution for that space. Here's a great article by a guy who does lots of web-based UI stuff (love him or hate him) Nielsen, on mega menus: Mega Menus Work Well for Site Navigation
But in the last dev update, when Adam Bradford showed off the menus, and now that I see them in actual practice above, I'm disappointed.
These aren't mega menus chock full of information, thoughtfully laid out so I can see what I want and get there with one drop down and one click. Instead, these are giant graphical buttons, with very little going for them except some cool zoom effects and a very memorizable location (Classes will always be the second giant square on the Game Rules menu, right?). To get anywhere, I have to click, then wait for the page to load, then navigate that page, often scrolling around to find what I want. I mean, hard-to-target-mousing aside, the previous version let me get to Warlock much quicker than this one. The same was true for other places I wanted to go.
Mega menus done right could have solved this problem without making another. I can definitely hit my mousing target on these menus! But these hardly help me get where I want to go.
But, whatever, I guess. I'm much more excited for source control and more organizational features for my characters, so I can probably let this go (now that I've made my stink here).
I was just hoping for more. Thanks for all the hard work you do, staff, I appreciate it!
ey/em/eirs, or they/them works, too (just not he).
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands. I love it so.
I don't like that the "classes" menu is a tiefling warlock. That's right, I'm warlock-ist. Fight me.
"The Epic Level Handbook wasn't that bad, guys.
Guys, pls."
My only issue with the new menus is that under tools, there's an "Encounter Builder" that doesn't go anywhere...
Teasing aside, I think they look really nice! I agree that it would be nice to have additional options to reduce the number of clicks, but I'm trying to imagine what that would actually look like. Maybe like another horizontal context bar appearing at the bottom that would just have small buttons with the name of each race / class? Ultimately though, you have to draw a line somewhere, because you could make the same argument for sub-races / sub-classes.
What I like about the current design is that they've chosen the size of the button (I'm assuming) because of their metrics tracking which pages are viewed most. I'm not sure though if I like the term "Game Rules", as there are a lot of game rules in the PHB & DMG not found under this section, but I don't have a better suggestion at the moment either.
I remember one of Adam Bradford's twitch streams talking about the encounter builder. Apparently it'll be coming out sometime this year.
"The Epic Level Handbook wasn't that bad, guys.
Guys, pls."
Lol, it says "Coming Soon!" in the menu; that was the joke... XD
But yeah, I'm definitely look forward to it releasing!
Fellow web designer here. I tend to agree. This feels like one step forward two steps back. What you described was basically my expectation of a megamenu as well. My daily use involves navigating to things like classes or races, and getting to that content takes now more time because of the extra clicking and browsing required.
The "Sources" in general is a good idea, I just don't entirely agree with its usability either. Only showing five books per slide is likely to get lengthy and slow to browse considering the amount of books is only going up. One could argue with the expanding amount of content they want to encourage people to use the search more, but that is another element with its own set of problems that could also use some updating at some point.
In more technical terms I'm also not a fan of how delayed the hover menu appearing is because it makes it feel clunky, slow and non-responsive. It doesn't really matter how fast a page loads if the UX (user experience) itself feels slow. I realize there are delays you may want to implement so the menu doesn't instantly disappear when you accidentally move your cursor away and whatnot, but there are better ways of addressing those issues.
Remember that quote from Valve's Gabe Newell saying "Piracy is a service problem"? Well, I've bought all the books I need in both physical and digital dndbeyond form, but these sorts of usability issues can easily push me towards 3rd party sites that do a better job with ease of access.
not sure i am a fan of the new menu layout......
I'm generally resistant to change related to tech, moreso for reference materials. That said, I don't enjoy scrolling through the megamenus.
As others have noted, the fly-out menus could be finicky to use, but despite that they seemed to function more quickly than these do.
The large graphics don't seem to serve a purpose other than for looks. Invariably, that usually just translates to "longer time to load". At the very least, I have to scroll and hunt for the words, since I don't like relying on imagery as I scan websites.
All of this is a qubble. It's notnterrible or anything. overall, I absolutely love Beyond. It's beyond awsome to have the material at my fingertips.
Just a follow-up. Today I used the "Sources" menu to access Dragon Heist. It was less than satisfactory. Previously, I'd pull down the menu, go to Adventures, carefully navigate the fly out menu down to Dragon Heist and click. Now, I pull open the mega menu, tried using my trackpad to scroll, but it leaps to the last set of sources. Other way, leaps to the first. I had to mouse over to the arrows (or the dots, I guess) to scroll to the third set of images, and click on Dragon Heist there. It wasn't actually easier than the previous method.
Maybe, if the scrolling was free, rather than by set, it might work better? Maybe if I had a notched scroll wheel, rather than a trackpad... but whatever. The Sources menu isn't better than the previous system, imho.
Again, like others here, I really love DDB, and plan to continue using it regardless, but I think (I hope) the developers want feedback. So here it is.
ey/em/eirs, or they/them works, too (just not he).
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands. I love it so.
I am not a fan of the new menu layout. It's more work to get to where I want to go and eats up a big chunk of the screen. I like simple and efficient. Some of the issues you're talking about will be addressed though.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/d-d-beyond-feedback/34115-mega-menu-feedback-review-and-next-steps
That's what happens when you wear a helmet your whole life!
My house rules
Sweet, I'll take my musing over there! Thanks, BTI-Brian, for the link.
ey/em/eirs, or they/them works, too (just not he).
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands. I love it so.
Not a fan of the mega menu. Can we get an option to use them or the old menus ?