Add breadcrumbs

[LASHirsh]

See mockup in Issue 390

[taylor-knapp]

Is there a way to reference the Lat/Long of the last search to have the map redirect to the appropriate location? Also, same idea for school lists... is there a way to direct to the school list where the current school falls within?

I have a basic breadcrumb done, but it simply directs the user back to the generic map and school list which doesn't seem as helpful.

[alexlemann]

@knappsacks
Current behavior related:

• Once the user has performed a search, URL in the address bar will reference the result of the search. If the user copy / pastes that URL into an email (for example) the person who opens the email link will be linked to the search result.
• That said, if you drag around on the map it does not update the lat/lng part of the URL in the URL bar. It seems that currently the idea of search results and center location are tied together.

It would be great if the reference back through the breadcrumbs would retain that saved search result. But that could definitely be saved for a second iteration of the feature. If the breadcrumbs are stable now, it sounds like it might be time for a PR.

Some of other enhancements could be:

• Retain selected Assigned/Magnets/Charters tab. It's still the same tab that was selected when you left.
• Retain the selected accordion state when you select a particular school. This state is also lost when you switch between the internal Assigned/Magnets/Charters tabs which is kind of confusing
• Retain the dragged map location and scroll level.

I'm not sure what would be most intuitive to users. @LASHirsh might know some best practices for this.

[taylor-knapp]

@alexlemann
Okay. V1 is now a pull request (#436). I'm going to play around with it to see about adding the dynamic link referencing.

[alexlemann]

@knappsacks I checked this out tonight. It looks great so far. I think the only blocker for me would be getting something in for breadcrumbs on every page. Once it's merged we can iterate on making it fancier. But, getting breadcrumbs on the About, Map, etc pages would be a great first step.

Thanks again for the work @knappsacks ! Impressive start.

[taylor-knapp]

@alexlemann as I was going to add breadcrumbs to add'l locations, but I'm taking a step back and wondering what they're value is in general. There's already a clear navigational menu in the top right that highlights Map, About, School Guide, and Schools and highlights the active page.

If the active page and navigation options are unclear to the user, perhaps the menu could be shifted to the left side of the page to be more prominent.

The breadcrumbs themselves are confusing because I don't actually go from Map > Schools (School Listing) > Individual School... I just go from Map > School (Individual School). So the crumbs are adding an extra step I didn't take to get there. (Or, I can go School Guide > Schools (School Listing) > Individual School.... of I can just go directly from Schools (School Listing) > Individual School.)

[alexlemann]

@LASHirsh what do you think about Taylor's comments about the usability of breadcrumbs on the school details page?

[alexlemann]

Some random thoughts from my perspective:

• Is this functionality useful on this page?
• If not, is it useful on this page simply bc it adds consistency across the whole site and the functionality is useful?
• I could see Taylor's point that the breadcrumbs are might be more complicated than is needed for this relatively simple site.
• It seems like adding a Home link to the Durham School Navigator main navigation text in the top left would be a huge win.
• The potential cost of adding this is making the site more complicated than needed, and use of vertical space.

[LASHirsh]

Oy, I missed this issue...finally returning to this convo!

Thanks @alexlemann and @knappsacks for your thoughts and work on this.

My thoughts:

@alexlemann, I agree that we would ideally want to implement breadcrumbs on all pages for the sake of consistency, but it's not strictly needed on the other top level pages (since the title of the page you're on is highlighted in the menu) and it does take up some vertical screen real estate. I believe just having it on individual school pages would be useful, but we can user test this if we want to determine whether the perceived benefit is worth the added complexity.

And yes, linking site name/logo in the upper left of the main navigation back to the home page (i.e., Map) is needed and a big, easy usability win! Users expect that link to be there.

@knappsacks , I understand what you're saying about how the breadcrumbs can be confusing, depending on the path you take to the profile, but I think the benefits would outweigh the potential confusion for some users. A general rule of thumb for breadcrumbs is to show the site hierarchy, not the user’s path.

The reasoning for recommending breadcrumbs initially is that without breadcrumbs on individual school details (profile) pages, users have no visual indicator of where they are in the site. School profile pages should live under the Schools page. Some users during profile testing mistook a school details/profile page for the homepage (however this may have been due, in part, to where they started during the school profile usability testing...they did not start at the map).

Your suggestion about moving the main menu to the left is an interesting one, but since the issue isn't that the menu isn't prominent enough, I don't think that change is needed.