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Feature #89

closed

[Minor Enhancement] Less line-spacing for the menu on the left side...

Added by xxx xxx almost 8 years ago. Updated over 5 years ago.

Status:
Closed
Priority:
Next Release
Start date:
02/20/2017
Due date:
% Done:

0%

Estimated time:

Description

Looking at the menu on the left side (cf. screenshot attached) I think quite a lot of space is vasted between lines/items. I need to scroll up-and-down which with less space between items would not be needed. I think that would be a small, but nice, improvement to make the menue a bit more compact.


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Actions #1

Updated by Soren Stoutner over 7 years ago

  • Assignee set to Soren Stoutner

The navigation drawer is created using Android's NavigationView:

https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/design/widget/NavigationView.html

Which is populated with a menu:

https://git.stoutner.com/?p=PrivacyBrowser.git;a=blob;f=app/src/main/res/menu/webview_navigation_menu.xml;h=d33c0e0df3106a813f8157e20270f2b8f4dca8e2;hb=acae0260d295ddab13d47bf6e011ae4ebe8b5e44

The NavigationView is designed to follow Google's spacing guidelines:

https://material.io/guidelines/patterns/navigation-drawer.html#

There are no controls provided to the developer to modify the spacing between entries.

According to Stack Overflow it is possible to replace the menu with a custom layout:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/30626324/navigationview-and-custom-layout

But I am inclned to stick with Google's standard NavigationView for the following reasons:

1. As a general rule I try to follow Google's design guidelines. It provides for a consistent user experience across devices.
2. Doing something custom could introduce corner-case bugs on particular devices or certain versions of Android, increasing the amount of troubleshooting and testing required with each release.

That being said, if there is a clear consensus among a number of users that compressing the NavigationView is desirable I would be amenable to doing so. The History AlertDialog has a list of entries that are closer together than the NavigationView, and I have not yet received a complaint that they are too close or that users have problems selecting the one they want. In addition, in the next release there will be another item (Domains) added to the NavigationView, with several addional entries likely down the road, so the issue of having to scroll to reach settings will get worse.

Actions #2

Updated by Soren Stoutner over 7 years ago

  • Status changed from New to Feedback
Actions #3

Updated by xxx xxx over 7 years ago

Fine then - I'm not coding for Android so it was just an idea in case this line spacing would have been part of the app-code itself. Since it's a 'given' by the Google guidelines then I would leave it as is and not mess around. It's not that important to mess around too much. Many thanks!

Actions #4

Updated by Soren Stoutner over 7 years ago

OK. I am going to leave this feature request open for a while and probably link to it from a news post to see if other users have strong feelings one way or another.

Actions #5

Updated by Soren Stoutner over 7 years ago

I shrunk the top padding on the navigation header from 60dp to 35dp. This is one of the areas where Google does provide controls (but not on the menu itself). It is outside the Material guidelines, but it doesn't pose any troubleshooting/maintenance issues going forward and it provides a little bit more space for the menu items.

Actions #6

Updated by Soren Stoutner over 7 years ago

A user suggested combining the Guide and About sections of the Navigation Menu. This is an interesting thought. Currently they are separate because the Guide is information that I would recommend every user read thoroughly when they first start using the app to understand how the features work. The About activity is additional information that is available to answer specific questions, but I would not expect most users to read it completely.

Perhaps it would be best to combine some of these options in submenus:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17149776/android-navigation-drawer-submenu-how-to-collapsible-navigation-items#21811394

Actions #7

Updated by Soren Stoutner over 7 years ago

  • Priority changed from 2 to 3
Actions #8

Updated by Soren Stoutner over 7 years ago

I moved the `Refresh` item to the bottom of the main options menu. I have received complaints that it can take an extra second to find `Refresh` among the other entires, and it is a commonly used feature. Putting it at the bottom allows the user to open the menu, scroll to the bottom (if required), and select `Refresh` without having to look closely at what the entries are.

https://git.stoutner.com/?p=PrivacyBrowser.git;a=commitdiff;h=038527fc881cb548e212d3904c878cceaaf050ab

Actions #9

Updated by Soren Stoutner over 7 years ago

  • Priority changed from 3 to 2

I'm going to revisit this in the second half of the 2.x series and possibly redesign the menus.

Actions #10

Updated by Soren Stoutner about 6 years ago

  • Status changed from Feedback to Closed

I am going to close this feature request. I don't foresee overriding the default layout of the Navigation menu, although I am sure that I will continue to modify the entries.

Actions #11

Updated by Soren Stoutner over 5 years ago

  • Priority changed from 2 to Next Release
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