New menu navigation bar

We want your input

Here at Clear Books we are always keen to get as much feedback from our customers as possible. We want to make sure that Clear Books is the best it can possibly be!

Based on your feedback we have decided to improve how you navigate around the software by cutting down clicks, and we would love your input. The development team has created two interactive mock-ups so have a look and make sure to give us your opinion.

Home version: 1

On hovering over a 1st level menu link you will be shown all the second level menu options.

Home version: 2

On hovering over a 1st level menu link you will be shown all the second level and third level menu options.

Please take 5 minutes to check out the new designs and you have your say here. Please note that these are test mockups to test out the usability.

About the Author - Ermos Kyriakides

Ermos is a University College of London (UCL) Masters Graduate who is working as part of the development team at Clear Books since November 2012 and is working hard to bring innovative solutions to Clear Books.

When he's not at work, you can find him playing football, hanging out with friends, or training to become a professional eSports player.

  • http://www.turnerink.co.uk Sarah

    If there is one thing I’d really like you to change it’s when you log out you get this: Welcome Back. We missed you. Really stupid and drives me nuts. :-)

    • Ermos Kyriakides

      @Sarah We will have a look at this as soon as possible.

      @Michael There are two mock-up versions on the site, which can be accessed from the left-hand sidebar. Version 1 works when you hover over a 1st level menu link you will be shown all the second level menu options. Version 2 works when you hover over a 1st level menu link you will be shown all the second level and third level menu options.

  • http://www.coloursells.com Michael G

    I’m only seeing one new ‘design’. Very basic, so really don’t have an opinion. If that’s all you are showing people, I suggest you take this thread down immediately and resurrect it when there’s something worthwhile to see. It would create a very poor impression on me if it was my first introduction to Clearbooks.

  • http://www.coloursells.com Michael G

    Thanks Ermos

  • http://photoskill.biz Richard Chaff

    For me, if this must be changed, version 2 is preferable, though I can’t see how this has come up as a higher priority than some other things – for example having an option to globally remain at the same date, or last used date.

  • http://www.clearbooks.co.uk Tim Fouracre

    @Richard Remembering filters is a really good idea – last used date, number of rows, project, selected contact etc.

    The menu improvement is all part of a wider roll out to improve the usability of Clear Books. In this case it currently takes 3 clicks and 3 page loads to get to a 3rd level menu option. We want to cut that down by presenting menu options on hover to reduce the page loads.

  • http://www.clearbooks.co.uk Tim Fouracre

    Richard – make sure you vote.

  • Carole Ward

    Hi I think Option 1 is clearer to read, maybe you could show the third level options by hovering over second level options. If you go with Option 1, I would also like to see the Aged Debtors report listed as an option as I think a lot of people must use this regularly to see who owes them money. On another point please add a way for us to bulk email our statements as this would save me so much time! I know you can bulk print them but not email yet can you?

  • Brendan

    I think I prefer the second one but I find several aspects of it unexpected and unsettling.

    1. The colour of the button changes when I hover off it to the main overlay. Given this overlay is selected the colour change is an unnecessary distraction drawing my eye back to the top of the screen when my brain has decided to engage with the overlay causing confusion.

    2. As I move to the bottom of the overlay expecting it to disappear once I have moved my pointer past the edging of the overlay in any direction it actually disappears earlier than I expect again the response of the overlay does not match what I expect which is to feel in control of the website instead it appears to pre-empet my mouse movement rather than respond to it.

    3. I would expect the overlay to be a solid colour to distinguish it from the rest of the web site having a white background and a border is not aesthetically pleasing and the square corners look dated and ridged compared to the more pleasing rounded corners and I believe these should be applied in this menu design.

    4. I wonder if given the complexity you now have in ClearBooks it is losing the clarity it once had and if time would not be better focused on custom menus rather than global ones for all customers.

    5. I like the idea of having icons but I believe the Icon should be on the left of the text rather than the right.

    6. I would very much like to see the All section moved to the right. I preferred when I would click “Reports” button before it would take me straight to my P&L and let me select other reports. Then you changed it to show me a listing page adding another click to my journey. For me reports all businesses use are P&L, BS and Cashflow and then the Graphs and now the new Management report and yet the far left of the menu (the most prominent part) is a section called All with a home icon?? Apart from the category naming which I find confusing these are really specialist reports for those using projects and yet they are taking up the primary left real estate in the menu which should surely be dedicated to the most commonly used reports.

    7. On point 6 surely you can do focus groups, click tracking or other testing on your menu naming and grouping as it seems things have just been added to the menu of late without thinking about how much use they get and perhaps right aligning or fading them out or hiding if they are not used as much. This could be done on a per user basis and adjusted in settings if you had a way this worked globally we could all understand it better and get used to it.

    8. This blog post doesn’t tell me anything about the author under the “about the author” section but I am excited to see that you are engaging more with us again on the blog keep it up!

  • Ermos Kyriakides

    @Carole – Thanks for your input, we will definitely have a look at that option.

    @Brendan – We very much appreciate your feedback! For points 1-3 and 5 please note that the ‘design’ aspects of the mock-up will be revised (colours, typography, animations, etc.). These are just mock-ups to show functionality, and not design. We will probably be asking for your input on the various designs as well, when the time comes.

    As for the rest, they are some valid points, which the team will take into consideration.

  • Taryn

    Sorry, I’m a bit late picking up on this!
    I think reducing time clicking buttons is a great idea, and I agree with Carole, Option 1 with the third level menus appearing as you hover over the second seems more user friendly.
    Would it be possible to add a link to Sales and Purchases which would enable you to navigate quickly to the page for adding new invoices? As this is probably one of the tasks that takes up most of peoples time, I think it would be really helpful to see “New” added to a menu list somewhere!