Drop down (popup layer) Menu has become unreliable

[IanB]

Hi

Having had a lot of help from TG members in updating my website "Songs of the Inland Waterways" and feeling rather pleased to have 'finished' the job - bar a little tweaking - I've discovered that the drop down/popup menu on the Song Menu page

https://www.waterwaysongs.info/songmenu.htm

is behaving erratically and doesn't appear to work at all on Microsoft Edge. This is a rather important menu which is key to functioning of the website.

Basically, having caused the popup menu to be selected with the beefburger icon, selection of one of the four button images with links to Home, Reference, Introduction or Updates just closes the popup player rather than moving to the linked page. Sometimes the link works as intended but at the moment I'm struggling to see any pattern in when it does and doesn't work so any help would be appreciated.

Ian

[Egg Bramhill]

I can only confirm this is the case Ian. Things work as expected in FF & Chrome too initially but then they to get the non responsive menu links after a while.

[Egg Bramhill]

I also find your menu structure a bit confusing. You appear to have 5 main pages but often your menu only shows 4 such that the menu is not consistant across all pages. How about:

[Egg Bramhill]

Here's an example of the way I'm thinking:

LINK

[IanB]

Thanks Egg, your comments are very useful.

I was thinking of simplifying the menu but was concerned that the menu was taking up too much space at the top of the screen and that's why I had a drop-down menu. Your example shows me that it can be done without looking too cluttered so I'll set about changing the relevant pages. Simplifying things is definitely a good idea.

That may still leave the problem on the mobile variant pages but I'll cross that bridge later.

Thanks again,
Ian

[IanB]

I've made your suggested changes Egg and the appearance and usability is much improved. The problem I had will have disappeared along with the popup menu layer and I'm a happy bunny. Much unnecessary work has been discarded but we learn by our mistakes.

It just shows how easy it is to make a wrong design decision when you are working on your own so I am very grateful for the help and support (and critical eye) this forum provides.

Now to look at the mobile variant and discover the next problem!

Many many thanks
Ian

[Egg Bramhill]

Glad to hear your initial problem is solved. The sites navigation looks much simpler now.

It just shows how easy it is to make a wrong design decision when you are working on your own

The trouble is you're working on the site full time and it's often very easy to overlook things. I do it all the time.

[Boy]

Nice site and easy to navigate! Very responsive too. It seems that you've solved the hamburger issue, right? One thing I noticed is that when in the Song Menu with one of the songs selected, the hamburger menu only shows three buttons, the one with Introduction missing.

[IanB]

Thanks for the comments Boy.

You are right about the three options rather than five. I haven't got round to changing all the song pages yet (It's quite a job as the songs are in different alphabetical Xara files).

As I considered the Introduction and Updates to be non-essential options as you go further into the site (I would think most people would access them from one of the early landing pages) I dropped them from some of the mobile variation pages and the song pages as well. Now Egg has shown that I can get five good sized buttons on one line I will probably add them back onto the Song pages where they once were.

I can see the argument that all five sections should be accessible from every page and it would be nice to get more consistency across the site.

Stay safe everyone.
Ian

[Boy]

I can see the argument that all five sections should be accessible from every page and it would be nice to get more consistence across the site.

That would be my p.o.v.