Hi Derek and all,
In this post, Derek: https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=252385#p1094430 - you say that there is an issue with the Breadcrumb in Moodle. It has been bothering me, as you hinted that it should have drop downs, so I did a search and one site I found was: http://ui-patterns.com/patterns/Breadcrumbs - and as far as I can tell with other sites too, that Moodle's breadcrumb is what a breadcrumb should be.
So, why the disparity?
Gareth
Can't see anything in there about dropdowns for breadcrumbs Gareth?
I think the 'biggest' (minor) issue that comes up (for me) is that part of the breadcrumb is not clickable - other than that, as far as I can see, I'm with you that I don't see any major issues with moodle's breadcrumbs - they are what I woud expect to see as a breadcrumb on a site.
Thanks Richard, I think I might be losing the plot! Confused with this https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=233520 - which may actually be a good thing to have. I do agree that all breadcrumb crumbs should be links though.
Gareth, I replied here: https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=252385#p1094828 sometime last week. I have nothing to add to this really, and I withdrew my comment as 'significant'. Nowhere did I suggest dropdowns.
I was suggesting as a navigation paradigm from top down
My main issue was unclickable links. But as I notice somewhere in 2.1 . . . . > > now some of the problems have been fixed.
-Derek
Could it be that the breadcrumb rendering code just needs to have anchor links - http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_links.asp - for when there is no link, i.e. "Other components" above is just actually a section in a course?
For me this is an information architecture issue all about defining who and what that html we spit out onto the screen is really for - what is it's purpose, and what user aims/tasks is it designed to help with.
This might only be applicable to sussex university users, but we had a large number of usability issues around the breadcrumb as a method of navigation in our moodle - those none clickable parts, the structure compared to a users mental model of moodle, names of stuff and the fact that the page you are on is a clickable link quite often to name but a few reported usability flaws.
On a smallscreen the breadcrumb can take up a lot of space, but in moodles current information architecture i understand how it can also end up being the only form of obvious navigation. Making any long list of navigation, such as the moodle breadcrumb, into a dropdown is a valid mobile (and desktop!) pattern used by plenty of sites. Having navigation/menus with mostly none clickable items is however not something i have seen any examples of elsewhere on the web.
This is very Student/Tutor focused, but Paolo did some amazing work - http://blogs.sussex.ac.uk/elearningteam/2011/07/12/moodle-breadcrumb/ - and quite a bit more which transformed our breadcrumb into something more familiar for our users expectations of a breadcrumb for navigation, but this pattern might not work for everyone.
In conclusion - It's a pickle, and you probably need to go talk to/observe your users to see what they actually want and need from a breadcrumb.
If you think the pattern we used at Sussex for a breadcrumb http://blogs.sussex.ac.uk/elearningteam/2011/07/12/moodle-breadcrumb/ is one that would work for your users, maybe contact @paolo_oprandi and ask him to show you around?
This is very Student/Tutor focused and the breadcrumb ends up being something like :
My Courses > Course name > Chapter/week/topic name > Activity/Resource name > (none linked) What i'm doing now
It's a very no frills breadcrumb/nav based on our end users mental model of moodle, rather than an admin users view - categories and other stuff is gone and the chapter/week/topic name is the context, rather than mod type.
This might not work for every moodle, but it fitted the needs for our Sussex users.