Update: Taken your feed back so far and came up with this. How is it now? I'm working on the UI for organizing all your bits n pieces on dannychoo.com - calendar items, puchi blurbs, videos etc. Soon you will be able to upload images too. You will also have the ability to view all your past comments which are archived by month. Your images for example can be viewed by gundam, figures etc and all views will have an rss feed and be mobile and iPhone compatible. Have a look at the image. The tabs below "Danny Choo's media items" are all the different types of "media" that you can submit. The nested tabs below that show categories where appropriate. Both rows of tabs load using AJAX so you don't have to wait for the whole page to load. Can you tell me whether the nested tabs look confusing in your eyes and let me know if you have any suggestions of improvement? Was also thinking of having the nested row of tabs like the subnav at Amazon. Or if there are sites where you particularly like the UI - please post. Your feedback means a lot to me ^^
How about make the nested tabs boxes size a bit smaller than the main tabs? That will differentiate them better, I think. Or use different fonts for the nested tabs?
Hmmm, your site has a pretty fiting style for it's purpose, though two rows of tabs looks indeed a bit uncommon... somehow like the first row of tabs would not fit the space and contiunes on the lower level. So giving the nested navi there a different style would be a good thing in my opinion. Though in case of what and which style, there are lot of things out there... but i admit the Amazon solution did pretty much solve it well, at all they have pros there, sure nobody is perfect but they prolly have thought a lot about their navigation layout as a user should be able to handle a navigation intuitive to enjoy shopping. I would prolly do the Amazon solution considering their research and skills on that field. Keep up the good work, i can see this system here took you quiet a bit, it's awesome. ^o^
It looks odd with 2 tab bars. I'd suggest making the sub nav into a solid bar that rest just below the main nav, so it look connected and just make it a single color with the selected tab just a bright square or something.
Hey Danny, I see you've been working hard at organizing all the info with the new tab system. Good show, buddy. Now just a few aesthetic suggestions for you. As others have stated, for sure your main tabs should look significantly different than your sub. Otherwise it somewhat looks like a continuation of the main. Most probably with a bigger tab size, bigger/different font. Most likely have it stretched evenly across the page space you've allocated for it and not banking to the left. Since you seem partical to green font for your main menu selected item I'll leave that to you. For the sub, I agree the amazon scheme would work nicely. I think you should center the subnave categories under the main tabs in smaller tabs and fonts. Perhaps round off the edge of the tabs like amazon to differentiate it even more, or vise versa on the main tabs instead. You could perhaps go with a button menu scheme instead for the sub if you prefer. Selected category could be highlighted in color (maybe orange) with a white font. Works for either tab or button scheme, as your site is mostly white background. Having your selected category highlighted in bold color would make it clear where you are, and different colors from the main tab font is probably best. I've probably babbled on too much already. Hope this helps Danny-o.
Will also see how the subnav looks centered - will probably look better.
Thanks all for the update. Took your feedback and came up with the revised image. Still working on it.
Awesome, much much better. Two very distinct menus. Like the button scheme alot. You really do like green, don't cha? BTW... Your button menu has Japan & Ero twice, but I know this is just a mock up. Looking good so far Danny-san, keep at it!
Looking great Danny! I agree with most of what everyone have said above already and your revised or updated version is looking very nice. I think the coloured subnav bar in the Amazon example is too strong against your established design style. It'll be like a bar right in the middle of your screen! I think if you keep it simple, it should work well. I was playing around in PS in the last hour and here's what I've come up with Hope I'm not stepping on your toes or anything. Just trying to make suggestions to you more visually. ^___^
Oops, here's the link to the image mentioned above: http://www.12one21.com/clientslogin/DAN/2007Dec24_dannychoo_subnav2.jpg
Kaeze, that looks great! My only concern is, with the arrow facing down, some may think there is something like drop-down menu, well that's not a big deal though ^^ Oh yeah how about giving the nested tabs separators like in this logitech website? http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_pointers/mice/devices/187&cl=us,en
*nod* that's nice, simple and effective. I would keep it this way, everything else would prolly just overload the design.
Thanks kaeze (and thanks to all) for the feedback. Thats a great mock. Looks cleaner than my version. Will work on it a bit more.
Kaexe's would look perfect without the arrow and with perhaps a very faint grey box behind the selected green text, just for a little extra definition. The update is much better than the first though, keep up the great work Danny. ^_^
No no, doesn't look confusing to me right now Danny. I might feel different when you implement it to the site. ^^; Sorry... I do like what you have here over what is at Amazon. Your subnav has more visual separation from the unselected tabs. The shading is what helps make that separation. I like a simple and functional design to nav bars. Too many people try to get complicated and cute with their navbars. Navigation needs to be intuitive and easy, like you have now. Hope that is of help to you...
I have liked the way things have been going so far. There have been minor glitches, but overall nothing beyond mildly annoying. I have realized though, that I HAVE to stop comment bombing the news posts. Sorry for that guys (even though the 20 quid thing was funny)
