Yesterday we tidied up the website's pages. That left the left-hand menu itself: seventeen entries, organised by type of page rather than by what you came to do. On an ordinary desktop screen, "FAQ" and "Settings" fell below the edge of the screen.
What changes for you
Six sections, each with its icon and its name.
- Home
- Kennel: the Kennel list, positions on the line, pens, breeding, gear.
- Training: the Plan, traces, statistics, Chronos.
- Team: members, tasks, messages, protocols, notes and the Club.
- Experts
- Help: the Guide, the FAQ and your feedback.
What a section holds appears as tabs at the top of the page. When you're on Pens, the Kennel, Positions on the line, Breeding and Gear tabs sit right above, one click away. Tasks, which used to hide in a sub-menu on the left of the Team page, are now a visible tab as soon as you enter the section.
Settings moves into the menu under your name, at the bottom of the bar, with language and sign-out. That menu used to show two initials in a circle without saying what it opened; it now shows the kennel's name.
Traces fit in a short list. All, then one line per surface, then Races. The folders sorted by where an outing came from (imported, entered by hand, Strava, references) are gathered in a "Source" menu, just below.
Groups of dogs are now called "Groups". "Team" used to mean both the kennel's people and your named groups of dogs ("Group B — development"). People keep "Team"; the Kennel button, the Stats filter and the management page now say "Groups".
On a phone, the bottom bar follows the same logic: Home, Kennel, Training, Team, and "More" for Experts, Help and Settings.
What this change doesn't do
- Nothing has been removed. Every page from before sits in a section, at the same address; your bookmarks still work.
- Permissions don't change. A vet still sees neither statistics nor gear, and a viewer still doesn't get the Tasks tab. The menu shows what concerns you; what you can read or edit is decided elsewhere, and doesn't move.
- The menu can't be customised. You don't pick your sections, and there's no "simple mode". A switch that hides things would have been one more hidden option.
- The mobile app doesn't change with this update. It keeps its own navigation. From its next version it will say "Groups" too, on the management screen and in the statistics filter.
The choices we made, and why
Why tabs at the top, rather than a menu that unfolds on the left? An unfolding menu files things under a heading you have to remember to open — exactly what you told us was wrong. A tab at the top of the page is visible without opening anything, as soon as you're in the right section.
Why is Gear under "Kennel" and not "Training"? Harnesses are assigned to dogs, and gear belongs to the kennel; you look it up from the same pages as the Kennel list.
Why is the Club under "Team"? A club brings kennels — people — together around a shared leaderboard. That's a team matter, not a training one.
Why "Groups" rather than "Teams" or "Lines"? A line-up is one day's line, dog by dog, each in its place. A group is the set of dogs you work together over the season. Both exist in MushMate, and both words stay.