User blog comment:Rupert Giles/Global Navigation January Update/@comment-5645428-20150131105828

One sixth less the current height of 57px is about 47px. While I would prefer a design between 40px and 45px, a removed 10px is definitely an improvement, and is at least tolerable combined with this new transparency trick. Although no one can actually see it yet, it seems like a step in the right direction, even if you don't get the ability to colour it yourself. From the last screenshot, the notifications appear a lot more convenient. The closer they function to how they originally used to, the better off they'll be since I cannot recall any issues back then.

Interestingly, it feels like many of the dislikable aspects before have suddenly vanished. I know it remains white when at the top of the screen, but I presume that's merely so the hubs menu doesn't have to be drastically changed. It occurred to me keeping the 'Start a wikia' button simply reminds users that they can create wikis, and thinking about it, where else is an option to do so? There are only a few visual tweaks I would make, such as moving the Start a wikia button back next to the search bar, adding the person's username back and changing the avatar to a square, but overall, I like it.

I do have a suggestion. On the search bar, instead of having to select out of a two item dropdown menu whether to search locally or globally, perhaps simply clicking on the chevron switches between the two. When this happens, the magnifying glass icon could change into a little globe icon alongside the placeholder text to further indicate the search scope has changed.