[thelist] RFC: Top Margin Network Bar?

[Ray Hill]

> I'm interested to see what people have to say about "top margin
> network bars".

If done correctly, they can be an incredibly useful and non-obtrusive
way to link relatesd sites together.  The trick, I think, is to make
them easy to read, intuitive and consistent.

I seem to remember that the OSDN version had links directly to the
various sites in the network bar, which was very useful to me when I
was getting started on their site(s).  But now it seems to be limiting
that to just search queries, which is far less useful.  Not ot mention
that the network bars on all the sites don't match.  :(

Another almost-there example would be the MSN navigation bar.  When
flipping between MSN Home, Search, Shopping, etc, it keeps that same
familiar nav bar present as you go between the different sites (ok,
they're now becoming the same site, but you get the idea).  Where this
breaks, though, is when you click on Hotmail and get a completely
different experience.  If the Hotmail page had the same nav bar at the
top, even without adopting all of the common UI features, it would be
a very well implemented network bar.


To answer some of the more specific questions:

> - how effective people think they are.
> - any studies that have been done on them.
> - any comments on them at all. any writeups, etc.
> - personal preference.

I don't know of any official studies, but when I was building the
intranet for the customer service department back at WebTV, they
proved to be very useful.  At the time, every department had its own
intranet, run by different people, on different machines, and with
completely different UIs.  To make the whole lot easier to manage (for
my dept, anyhow) I used a srames-based network bar to link together
all of the outsourcers' extranets, other departments' sites, internal
sub-group sites, and an arsenal of web-based tools.  The feedback I
got from the intranet users was *very* positive when this was added to
the site.

Example screenshot:
http://www.prydain.com/webdev/portfolio/?page=wtv_intranet



> - breakdown of what could/should be in them.

Well, that depends on what your network is like, of course.  If it's a
high-level network between just a few related but distinct sites, then
it's pretty simple to provide links to each and make it fairly clear
what each one is for.  If the network is between a bunch of very
similar sites (Elvis fan sites, for example) then it gets a bit
trickier.  Do you try to show every single site in the network bar?
Or just have a few links pointing pointing to sub-list pages for a few
distinguishing characteristics of the sites?  I'm not sure.  But since
netwotk bars are ideal primarily for the former type of network,
hopefully you won't have to answer that ugly question.

As for what form the cotnents of the bar should take...  Drop-down
menus like the ones I used or like OSDN uses are quick and easy for
users who use the site often and know to expect them, but are not so
useful for first-time visitors to the site.  If you're dealing with a
network of just a few sites, having text links to each (with the
current one "selected") is probably best.



> - standard across all network sites, or color/font tweaked
    to the site in question?

Yes, both.  They should *definitely* be consistent between all of the
sites on the network.  But consistent doesn't necessarily mean
identical.  Going back to the MSN example, the nav bars on Shopping,
Money and Search change color to match the rest of the branding on
each site, but still remain similar enough to provide a feeling of
consistency.

Of course, the more similar you make them, the easier it will be on
maintenance and recognizability.  So making the network bar in grey
scale so it'll match pretty much any UI isn't a bad idea.


Anyway, that's my two cent's worth (or nickel's worth, as the case may
be),


--ray