User blog comment:Rupert Giles/Introducing Updated Global Navigation/@comment-4189499-20140926140154/@comment-4189499-20140926151452

More comments to make now I've read through all the other comments and had things pointed out.

Because I'm a negative narwhal, I'm going to start with the things that annoy me about it that weren't mentioned in my first comment.
 * 1) Having the notifications under the profile menu is annoying and impractical, especially since in busy times IRL the notifications is all I have time to check on my wikis to find if there's anything I urgently need to attend to.  Can they please be returned to their own part of the menu?
 * 2) The line heights in all the menus are much too big, leading the menus to take up too much screen space, which isn't good on smaller devices especially, but also just doesn't look as nice and compact on bigger devices.
 * 3) "Search this wikia" and "Start a wikia": first problem is that it's not in title case, which is should be since it's a heading, and the second problem leading from that is that they aren't "wikias", they're "wikis".  Wikia is a brand, your brand.  Wikis are websites usually built on the MediaWiki platform which allow may different users to edit the content at will in an open environment.  Wikia hosts wikis.  "wikias" are not a thing, despite how you may wish to alter the language.  The use of the term "wikias" is also confusing, as capitalised it means the company, not a supposed synonym for wikis, which makes things confusion when using the word at the beginning of a sentence or when using title case, as should be used in the top navigation bar. You go around talking about wikis and your friends will think you're a bit weird, but will still have a vague idea about what your talking about and will nod along to be polite.  You go start talking to them about wikias and they'll be utterly clueless and will probably decide that you finally lost your few remaining marbles. I don't care if you're trying to build brand identity.  It just doesn't work.
 * 4) Back to notifications: It is a little annoying how the users' names aren't written but just the avatar shown, as many users change their avatar often or, as in the case of my wiki, very few users have uploaded their own avatar and so almost everyone would be represented by the same silhouette image. With the added space under the menus, I would like to think the usernames could be squeezed in there somehow.
 * 5) The splitting of the Entertainment Hub just doesn't work for our wiki, our wiki being Doctor Who Answers.  While our primary focus is the TV show Doctor Who, we also cover hundreds of audios, books, and comics, 3 movies, several short films and webcasts, and to a limited extent several games (video- and otherwise).  If there is a storytelling medium, chances are there is a licensed Doctor Who story or licensed spin-off story using that medium which we will answer questions about. Putting us under TV just doesn't quite cover everything we have to offer.  Entertainment worked because of its broadness.

Now onto more positive ideas:
 * 1) Although I rarely use the search bar myself, preferring to navigate straight from the URL bar, the new prominence should really help with new users to my wiki who are constantly. Re-asking. The same things. Over. And. Over. I think you can guess from my punctuation what I think about that.  Having a more prominent search bar should help encourage new users to search before asking new questions.  (Did I mention we're an answers wiki?)  This is especially handy because of the previous lack of prominence of the search bar when compared to the ask bar.
 * 2) Despite their size, the new drop-downs are very stylish.  If their line height was just a little bit smaller, they would be perfect!
 * 3) The general idea of a cross-wiki search bar is a really interesting one, although it needs to be able to link to articles.  I wonder what you think of the idea of creating another option allowing users to search "partner wikis", that is wikis on the same or similar subjects, often presented in different forms, which have joined together specifically for that purpose, allowing users to find more information from the one topic across a broader but still specific range of wikis which are relevant to them.  For example, lets say Tardis Data Core and Doctor Who Answers decided to partner up (probably never gonna happen, but I can dream) along with Doctor Who Collectors, Doctor Who Legacy, and Doctor Who Fanon.  There could then be a search option that allows one to find information about, say, Amy Pond as mentioned on all those different wikis, all from the same search results page, such as the main article on her character from TDC, questions about her from DWA, merchandise featuring her from DWC, info on the Legacy game character version of her from DWL, and fan fiction starring her from DWF.  That would be an awesome feature!

In general, the functionality of the bar itself is a great improvement over the last, but it is the smaller yet more numerous stylistic changes which make this a no-go for the time being. I also think that the colour at least should be customisable eventually through the Theme Designer, just like the current bar, to match in with a wiki's theme. However, if these small-ish design changes were fixed, I would love to be able to benefit from the increased functionality of this Global Nav!