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NCNow mobile website working again after menu failure; here's how to use 'hamburger menu'

Posted 12/3/17

North Country Now’s new mobile website got off to a bad start Friday when the “hamburger menu” – the three lines in the upper right of each page – stopped working. That meant viewers were …

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NCNow mobile website working again after menu failure; here's how to use 'hamburger menu'

Posted

North Country Now’s new mobile website got off to a bad start Friday when the “hamburger menu” – the three lines in the upper right of each page – stopped working.

That meant viewers were unable to navigate to their favorite pages, such as weather, police blotter, obituaries or help wanted ads.

The problem was corrected late Saturday morning.

North Country Now’s new “responsive website” -- which changes appearance depending on whether it is viewed on a desktop computer, tablet or smart phone -- went online Monday.

Many NCNow visitors were still learning how to use the new mobile site Friday when the “hamburger menu” stopped working, creating frustration and confusion for many.

Once you get used to it, we hope you will find the “hamburger menu” is easy to use.

For example, before this week, viewers on phones or tablets interested in reading obituaries, police blotter, or sports had to:

• Scroll down the home page to find the section they were interested in

• Swipe the page to enlarge it

• Click on the story they were interested in.

Now, viewers can “click, click, click:”

• Click the number to the right of the category you are interested in. For example, click “8” to the right of “News” if you want to read the weather, police blotter or North Country This Week online.

• Click the page you want to read.

When you are finished reading that page, simply click on the “hamburger menu” again.

To view obituaries, click “Obituaries.”

To view help wanted ads, click the “11” to the right of “Classifieds” then click “Jobs.”

To view movie listings, click the “8” to the right of “Entertainment,” then click “Movies.”

Just think “click, click, click.”

The “hamburger menu” includes all pages listed in the blue-and-green tool bar that runs across the top of the page on desktop versions of our site.

In the “hamburger menu,” if you click the number to the right of the category – such as “8” to the right of “News” – you will see a list of all pages in that category.

By contrast, if you click on the name of the category to the left – such as “News,” “Sports,” “Classifieds” or “Entertainment” -- you will only be taken to the main page for that category and you won't see the list of pages.

Worldwide, the “hamburger menu” is becoming the universal way to navigate websites on phones and tablets.

When smart phones and tablets first became common, some websites created two versions – for desktop and phones. But as many different size phones and tablets became widely available over the past decade, web developers throughout the world came to realize a different navigation method was necessary.

The “hamburger menu,” sometimes called the “pancake menu” because the three lines look like a stack of pancakes, is increasingly becoming the norm.

For example, many news websites are using the format, including:

Adirondack Daily Enterprise in Saranac Lake

Syracuse.com

Plattsburgh Press Republican

New York Times

Our new mobile-friendly website will also display fewer ads. But the ads that do appear will be much bigger and create better impact for advertisers.

And that is important because we want to make sure our ads provide the best possible result for our advertisers.

Without ads, we would have to charge each viewer a subscription fee.

Our website developers are now investigating why the cache became full and caused the “hamburger menu” to stop working.

A web cache temporarily stores web documents such as HTML pages and images to reduce server lag.