Add a link to the blog to the AMO header

[bobsilverberg]

This is part of the blog discoverability project.

In order to increase the discoverability of the blog and allow more users to find it, we should add a link to the blog to the header of the AMO site. We might want to consult with UX on this.

[bobsilverberg]

Here is what the header currently looks like:

and on a smaller screen:

I think we should add a link to the blog, and probably just label it "Blog" (as that is quite a common practice when a site has a blog associated with it). We can either add it after "Themes" (and before the "More..." item, which will make it more visible, or we could put it inside the "More..." menu, which would work better on smaller screens, but make it less visible/discoverable.

Because the purpose of this project is to improve discoverability, I would prefer to not hide it inside the "More..." menu.

I will ping UX and Content Design about this.

[MeridelW]

What's the goal of bringing the blog to the top of the site, beyond just discovering the blog? I assume we want them to get to the blog to read a review and install an extension. I am wondering if there is a better way to get that content directly to them - simply surfacing a link to a blog might not be so enticing. Have you considered ways to incorporate blog pieces directly into the design of the Explore/AMO home page? For example, the hero image could be a recommended extension plus a link to the blog piece about that extension/topic.

If you DO want to go ahead and include it on the top of the site, is there anything else that could be removed so the site doesn't get top heavy? For example, the "Explore" link is redundant with the "Firefox Browser Add-ons" link right to the left of it. Etsy, AirBnB, and the Chrome Web Store don't have anything like that and it feels clunky/redundant. Possible to remove and then add the Blog to the top there? Blog could then follow 'Themes': Firefox Browser Add-ons / Extensions / Themes/ Blog/More

[bobsilverberg]

Thanks for the feedback @MeridelW!

What's the goal of bringing the blog to the top of the site, beyond just discovering the blog? I assume we want them to get to the blog to read a review and install an extension. I am wondering if there is a better way to get that content directly to them - simply surfacing a link to a blog might not be so enticing. Have you considered ways to incorporate blog pieces directly into the design of the Explore/AMO home page? For example, the hero image could be a recommended extension plus a link to the blog piece about that extension/topic.

We have actually already started doing something similar. We have put links to blog posts in the secondary hero area (see https://github.com/mozilla/addons-frontend/issues/10942), but you're right that we should consider putting a link to the blog in the primary hero area as well.

The goal of this issue is just to give users a way of discovering the blog that is better than the link we currently have in the footer, which is why we feel it would be valuable to have a link in the header.

If you DO want to go ahead and include it on the top of the site, is there anything else that could be removed so the site doesn't get top heavy? For example, the "Explore" link is redundant with the "Firefox Browser Add-ons" link right to the left of it. Etsy, AirBnB, and the Chrome Web Store don't have anything like that and it feels clunky/redundant. Possible to remove and then add the Blog to the top there? Blog could then follow 'Themes': Firefox Browser Add-ons / Extensions / Themes/ Blog/More

I actually had a similar thought when I was doing the screenshots for this issue. Do we need the "Explore" link at all? I assume it's there for people who don't realize they can just click on the Add-Ons logo in order to get back to the home page, but it's true that there are plenty of sites that don't have this extra link, and it seems to be a fairly standard practice to use the site's logo for this purpose.

I pinged @designakt on Slack about this, and maybe he can weigh in here on this topic?

[devaneymoz]

As a top-of-page nav I agree it makes sense to include a "Blog" link to its main page; as Bob mentioned we're utilizing other parts of the homepage to promote specific posts (e.g. currently all three boxes just beneath the hero area point to posts).

Thanks, Scott

On Tue, Oct 5, 2021 at 6:56 AM Bob Silverberg @.***> wrote:

Thanks for the feedback @MeridelW https://github.com/MeridelW!

What's the goal of bringing the blog to the top of the site, beyond just discovering the blog? I assume we want them to get to the blog to read a review and install an extension. I am wondering if there is a better way to get that content directly to them - simply surfacing a link to a blog might not be so enticing. Have you considered ways to incorporate blog pieces directly into the design of the Explore/AMO home page? For example, the hero image could be a recommended extension plus a link to the blog piece about that extension/topic.

We have actually already started doing something similar. We have put links to blog posts in the secondary hero area (see mozilla/addons#14307 https://github.com/mozilla/addons-frontend/issues/10942), but you're right that we should consider putting a link to the blog in the primary hero area as well.

The goal of this issue is just to give users a way of discovering the blog that is better than the link we currently have in the footer, which is why we feel it would be valuable to have a link in the header.

If you DO want to go ahead and include it on the top of the site, is there anything else that could be removed so the site doesn't get top heavy? For example, the "Explore" link is redundant with the "Firefox Browser Add-ons" link right to the left of it. Etsy, AirBnB, and the Chrome Web Store don't have anything like that and it feels clunky/redundant. Possible to remove and then add the Blog to the top there? Blog could then follow 'Themes': Firefox Browser Add-ons / Extensions / Themes/ Blog/More

I actually had a similar thought when I was doing the screenshots for this issue. Do we need the "Explore" link at all? I assume it's there for people who don't realize they can just click on the Add-Ons logo in order to get back to the home page, but it's true that there are plenty of sites that don't have this extra link, and it seems to be a fairly standard practice to use the site's logo for this purpose.

I pinged @designakt https://github.com/designakt on Slack about this, and maybe he can weigh in here on this topic?

— You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/mozilla/addons/issues/14305, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACA2I6IDP6MGFK3FAIUKHTLUFL7YVANCNFSM5FCWAYXQ . Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1477376905?ct=notification-email&mt=8&pt=524675 or Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.android&referrer=utm_campaign%3Dnotification-email%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Dgithub.

[bobsilverberg]

Further to the discussion above, I notice that the proposed new design for AMO has the "Explore" link removed, which suggests to me that this is an okay thing to do now.

[designakt]

Fully agree on the "explore". It is redundant and can be left out.

All items in the primary menu link to groups of add-ons AMO provides. The blog link feels like it is a different kind of link. It would fit with the links to further information in the secondary menu on the top right. You could place the blog link there, give those items a little more space, and underline on hover.

[bobsilverberg]

Fully agree on the "explore". It is redundant and can be left out.

All items in the primary menu link to groups of add-ons AMO provides. The blog link feels like it is a different kind of link. It would fit with the links to further information in the secondary menu on the top right. You could place the blog link there, give those items a little more space, and underline on hover.

Thank you @designakt, I like that suggestion!

[bobsilverberg]

It turns out we already have a link to the blog in the "More..." menu, which shows just how discoverable it is. 😉

Part of this issue will be moving the link from inside the "More..." menu into the header links at the upper right-hand corner of the site, as per Markus' suggestion.

We can also take this opportunity to remove the "Explore" menu item to free up more room in the header.

[bobsilverberg]

We can also take this opportunity to remove the "Explore" menu item to free up more room in the header.

It looks like there is some clean-up that we can do when we remove the "Explore" item (related to viewContext), so I am going to open a separate issue for that.

[MeridelW]

If placing blog in upper-right, I would include the full name: Firefox Add-ons Blog, or to save on space, "Add-ons Blog". Leaving it at simply "Blog" doesn't seem right.

To keep things trim up there, can we also replace "Register or log in" with simply "Log in"? I may have written that original string and it is overly technically accurate.

[designakt]

Here is what that would look like. On the fence about the "Firefox" in front of the Add-ons Blog, but your call.

[bobsilverberg]

@designakt Thanks for all your help and advice! Here is what it will look like with my current patch:

Please let me know what you think.

[bobsilverberg]

@MeridelW I wanted to follow up about the change to the "Register or log in" link from a conversation I had with @diox. This link sends users to the Firefox Accounts log in. If they already have a Firefox account, but they do not have an AMO account, it will automatically create one for them. I think this is one of the reasons we had it labelled "Register or log in". I'm not sure that this is really a problem with renaming the link to just "Log in", but I wanted to mention this use case to see if it changes your opinion about what the link should read.

[AlexandraMoga]

This issue is verified fixed on -dev:

[header on desktop - logged out]

[header on desktop - logged in]

[header on mobile - links hidden]

[Blog link no longer present in the More menu]