Template talk:Mawdrey nav

This template was extending WAY past the page boundaries on anything but high-resolution fullscreen browsers. My temporary solution was to remove the names of the items and shrink the box. It's not a great solution so if any template wizards want to take another crack at it that would be good. Entrea Sumatae [Talk] 21:17, 26 August 2014 (UTC)

My suggestion would be User:Chieftain Alex/sandbox4. -Chieftain Alex 23:20, 26 August 2014 (UTC)

Can you somehow incorporate icons into the template? Since there's SO many items, some with similar names, having them icon-ized could really make the navigation easier. If it's possible, of course. --Ventriloquist 23:28, 26 August 2014 (UTC)

feel free to tinker, I'm off to sleep. -Chieftain Alex 23:31, 26 August 2014 (UTC)

It's pretty easy to swap in the Item Icon template for the links, I'll go ahead and do that and update the template to your version.Entrea Sumatae [Talk] 00:14, 27 August 2014 (UTC)

Okay, I've added the icons and updated to the current version from the sandbox. Figured even if people wanted to tinker some more and update it again later, this was better than my original quick fix. Thanks for the help, Alex.Entrea Sumatae [Talk] 00:24, 27 August 2014 (UTC)

Original Version

I liked the original version better for a couple of reasons:

• It made it easy to see the obvious patterns in the process, especially comparing the steps in each "line."
• It was nice and compact, even when fully expanded.

I have been encouraging people to use it, over the more convoluted guides elsewhere. The current version (separate lines per step) is "good;" I just like the one line/backpack (+text) version much better. – Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 01:11, 27 August 2014 (UTC)

The original version obviously doesn't work because the table doesn't resize itself properly. A horizontal nav is awkward since the string length thanks to the name of the plates adds a lot of whitespace and each piece taking a different number of steps makes it look weird fully expanded. I don't get a sense of being compact that way. It's also unclear what is done to get to the next step: in comparison, I like that the arrow notes the sequence and the plus sign indicates what being added. Maybe headers that denote two columns for the base + modifier would make this more clear too.--Relyk ~ talk < 02:11, 27 August 2014 (UTC)

All of the issues you mention can be addressed; the question is if this helps other people prefer visualize the simplicity of the process — I think there's an appetite for that, because a lot of people I know have avoided working on Mawbrey because it seems too complicated to be worth the trouble. This pattern isn't visible at all on the other sites, especially Dulfy's version. The pattern is

starter	+	pot	+	food	+	special food	+	lamp1	+	stone2
seed	→	seedling	→	sprout	→	1	→	1	→	backpack
seed	→	seedling	→	sprout	→	shoot	→	2	→	backpack
seed	→	seedling	→	sprout	→	shoot	→	plantling	→	backpack

The original display showed this parallel process and the new one does not do it as well. Although, as I say, I still think it's loads better than other sites. – Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 02:43, 27 August 2014 (UTC)