[Discuss] Remove 'Dock navigation' feature

ryankeairns commented 4 years ago

Current situation

The current (and previous) version of the left hand navigation provides a feature which allows users to dock, or keep visible, the navigation menu.

On the positive side, this saves users a click each time they want to change applications. In prior versions, this also allowed users to avoid an icon-only navigation.

On the negative side, it takes up a substantial slice of horizontal screen real estate. Further, there is an emerging challenge for solution teams as they implement app-level, side navigation elements. Essentially, you end up with something like:

Side nav screenshot

Telemetry

As far as I am aware, there is no available telemetry for us to measure actual usage.

Historical & anecdotal information

Historically speaking, there are a few things to note:

In version 5, the nav was docked by default
In version 6, the nav was collapsed to the icon-only view. As the number of apps (icons) grew, this became problematic and I suspect usage of the docking feature grew as well. However, there is also anecdotal feedback suggesting many users overlooked the feature, likely due to its placement in the bottom 'footer' of the nav.
In version 7, the nav has been redesigned to use an offscreen approach which still offers a docking feature. Feedback has been predominantly positive and there is no longer an icon-only option.

Proposed solutions

Given the redesigned nav, the forthcoming navigational search feature, and the imminent use of app-level side navigation, the question arises: What should we do with the docked navigation feature/design?

Do nothing - users dock/undock the navigation based upon personal preference and tolerance of broken/busy layouts
Remove the feature altogether - point to search as a mitigating factor
Keep the feature but increase the breakpoint at which docking is allowed - currently, docking is not allowed on tablet (portrait) size and down; increasing the breakpoint reserves the feature for larger screen sizes

Recommendation

Initial discussions within the design team (i.e. those working towards a side nav solution) are leaning toward option 2, with option 3 as a secondary preference.

As a next step, we wanted to collect additional feedback by way of this issue.

cc:/ @alexfrancoeur @daveyholler @MichaelMarcialis @kaleighflynn @hbharding

gimmic commented 4 years ago

Don't remove features. Look at all the waste in the left dock that could be cleaned up with some width adjustment. Leave more to personal preference. Sometimes I'm moving between elements that make it easier to lock the left dock, sometimes I'm digging in data and can hide it if I choose.

In general, there needs to be more user-specific tweaking permitted. I should be able to set my personal environment up to my liking and not be tied to a shared space(for things like color themes!)

In larger production environments we have to all agree to use the same space settings to share a lot of the work/context. I don't understand why UI presentation customization is tied to that space and not the specific user.

timroes commented 4 years ago

alexfrancoeur commented 4 years ago

I'm hesitant to remove the docking feature from our navigation. I've been a PM for Kibana since 5.0 and with each attempt to change the navigation, the most vocal feedback has been around docking and keeping it as part of the experience. A lot of our community who use Kibana also have a fairly large monitors, so screen real estate isn't typically an issue.

Generally, I think the new navigation is a significant improvement to what we had in previous versions, but the majority of our community is still not using it. It takes time to upgrade. So I imagine we've only begun to receive feedback here. I do believe that the introduction of navigational search (https://github.com/elastic/kibana/pull/72331) will fundamentally change how our users navigate Kibana. But again, it's too early to tell.

As docking the navigation is optional, and the preference is stored locally, I don't see this hindering the majority of our user base. I don't see a good, definitive rush to removing this functionality if it's optional and most likely - used less frequently then we think. I'd like to propose a fourth option:

Postpone the decision until we learn more
- My hypothesis is, search will become the primary and preferred way to navigate Kibana. But we'll need to prove it.
- If we can begin to understand how search is being used (https://github.com/elastic/kibana/issues/74430) and analyze docking in a similar fashion, we can make more informed decisions around removing this type of functionality. Anecdotally, our community wants this capability, but we don't have any insight into actual usage at the moment.

Similar to @gimmic's comment, functionality like this should be user specific. As user settings is on the near term roadmap, and will likely rise in priority, these types of customizations will become user centric. I plan to work with @joshdover and the platform team on fine tuning those requirements in the coming weeks.

ryankeairns commented 4 years ago

Related telemetry issue: https://github.com/elastic/kibana/issues/77183

gimmic commented 4 years ago

(My) Related issue #71954 in regards to screen real estate utilization for the side bar.

This should be re-sizable and stored user-specific as a preference.

elasticmachine commented 4 years ago

Pinging @elastic/kibana-core-ui (Team:Core UI)

BBQigniter commented 3 years ago

"Dock Navigation" is useful - why was it removed in 7.14.0? Is there now another option to dock the navigation?

FreerideTheWorld commented 3 years ago

Wondering the same things myself. I've got a 37" monitor, screen real estate isnt a problem for me and being able to dock the navigation allows me to skip a UI step.

ryankeairns commented 3 years ago

Sharing some additional context...

Solution side navigation

One of the main drivers had to with the introduction of a new side nav for solutions. This robust, secondary navigation was needed by those areas given the depth of their individual areas of focus. With this, the decision was made to remove the docking feature in order to avoid the UX complexities of a side-by-side navigation.

Navigational Search

An additional means for avoiding the extra clicking is to use the keyboard shortcut to open the navigation search, up top. This allows for switching between applications (and saved objects) without opening the main left navigation menu. The availability of this feature was also a mitigating factor in ultimately deciding to remove the docking feature.

sourcx commented 3 years ago

Oh no it has been removed! :(

BBQigniter commented 3 years ago

I think that was not a good decision for usability. On german keyboard you have to press CTRL+SHIFT+7 to open the nav-searchbar. Also after more and more people are using high-resolution displays nowadays, the nav-menu on the left side would not hurt. It would even be awesome to have the old nav-menu back were you just would have a small icon to each "app" - even nicer would be if you would be able to move that nav-menu to top, right side or bottom if you want.

archon810 commented 3 years ago

Another vote for bringing back docking the sidebar.

glade-at-gigwell commented 3 years ago

This change assumes every user is an expert and knows where they need to go. Having the menu dockable allows new or infrequent users to get familiar with the options. Some task flows require constantly switching between the major components, and having the dock present during those tasks was extremely helpful, and now has a pretty large click tax. Magic search menus that require prior knowledge are not replacements. I do not see any screenshots of a double-navigation that might cause confusion, only a simple breadcrumb top nav. Further, what percentage of users are going to be using "new side nav for solutions" and did everyone have to sacrifice for it? Disappointed upgrader.

sarahsbohr commented 3 years ago

A navigation dock option should be in Advanced Settings, right under Dark Mode. Let the users decide.

elasticmachine commented 3 years ago

Pinging @elastic/kibana-design (Team:Kibana-Design)

FreerideTheWorld commented 2 years ago

When is the ability to dock the main navigation bar coming back? The subpages, I guess thats what its called, are dockable now but the main nav isn't. An update would be great. This can't be that hard to bring back.

sebastian-bugajny commented 2 years ago

Please bring it back. It's very annoying that this very useful functionality has been removed without a serious reason.

FreerideTheWorld commented 1 year ago

Is this ever coming back or am I just completely missing where to lock the navigation bar? Close to 3 years on with no update other than Elastic not listening to users to bring a feature that should never have been removed back.

Cora-young commented 11 months ago

Hi Team, Checking in on behalf of our customer @FreerideTheWorld to see if this feature is something we are prioritizing bringing back in an upcoming release?

elastic / kibana