Changing Direction…
When the UXD team was tasked with identifying UI improvements for Satellite
(and Foreman through association) one of the major improvements we could
see was with the navigation.
As it stands now, Satellite/Foreman uses the Horizontal Navigation Pattern
<http://www.patternfly.org/pattern-library/navigation/horizontal-navigation/#_>
found in PatternFly (see example below).
Our reasons for improving the current UI include better adaptability for
additional menu items, a friendlier responsive design layout, as well as
including Satellite in the larger effort across the management product line
that are adopting the vertical navigation (including Cockpit, Openshift,
USM, Cloudforms and the Cloudforms Self Service UI).
As you can see from the below screen, the current menu does react well to
screen constraints, dropping menu items onto a second line.
There are some notes worth addressing when contemplating moving towards a
vertical nav from a user experience perspective.
Firstly, though vertical nav supports a tertiary level, currently no nav
item is in need of it. It’s nice to know it’s available if desired.
Secondly, the current vertical nav is at its best when nav items are given
groupings and titles for those groups. The current horizontal nav
inconsistently groups items. Possible solutions could be to provide
groupings alternatively you could leave them as is. In the below mockup we
can see a secondary nav that has one untitled grouping and three titled
groupings (In Bold - Provisioning Setup, Templates, Compliance).
Additional information about the vertical nav and its functionality can be
found on the PatternFly blog
<https://blog.patternfly.org/vertical-navigation-finding-your-way/>.
As a final note: the decision to move toward a vertical nav was based on
our perspective from a user experience team. I know that there will also be
additional considerations from a technical perspective. I’m looking forward
to everyones feedback.