I know it’s rough, but I’ve been doing some thinking about some interface changes to an internal app. Here are some Mockup’s with some rough Pro’s and Con’s. I’m interested to know what people would prefer to use. If the mockup’s aren’t self explanatory, let me know and I will do my best to explain.
I’m not really a front-end guy, but I prefer the nested tabs. My main question would be how many sub tabs you might end up with. The interface could really break down as soon as you had 75 incident numbers to display.
I prefer the 2 levels of navigation. Clicking twice for some tasks would seem quicker then scanning through the possibly long one menu of possibly unrelated tasks.
Mockup #1, by far.
Sub-links should never be confused with top-level links.
If sub-links must always be visible, you shouldn’t use a tab-based nav.
A simple tree menu might work better?
I think the first mockup is the better of the two, especially if the other module areas (timesheets, users) also have multiple context areas.
But I have a question: what happens to the interface if the number of open incidents is large (12-20)? Ideally, a user’s number of open incidents would be small, but things happen…
I like the stacked tabs. Why don’t you have it display the secondary items when hovering the tab to prevent your “2-click” issue. Check out the Jquery Superfish menu’s nav-bar sample.
I thinks Mock 1. Because its more organized and extensible.
Or an easy way to find which one, just count pros and compare them
Mockup one, but move the top tabs to the very top of the page like Google Apps does it to help separate it out, otherwise if the open incidents can keep going forever then just have them in a list page or a left nav maybe…maybe a drop down otherwise
I think mockup #1 will give the user a better look/feel for the UI.