Hi, I am using Mattermost 4.2.3 desktop client on Windows, with Dark theme.
It used to work well until today, not sure why. My sidebar (where all the channels are) used to stay open, which is how I want it, but now it always collapses after use. I can’t find a way to pin it.
Another issue, possibly related, is that I don’t have my user name on the sidebar, where I used to set my status as “do not disturb”, “online”, etc.
Sh*t I just solved my own problem by simply increasing the window width a bit more.
Now the sidebar looks just like it always did.
But I guess this is a bug then - at small widths some of the features simply disappear.
Even if the always-collapsed sidebar is deemed acceptable (I would argue I should be able to see it even with smaller widths), surely losing the user name and the ability to set status, and see account menu, is not good…
Come on… responsive design moves stuff around when the screen size is different. It floats some stuff, collapses other stuff, etc. But throwing bits away without any warning is surely not intentional… it might be “responsive” but it does not merit the name of “design”.
Try losing a feature here on Discourse by changing window size…
If you have a tiny screen and you still want to fit everything on that screen, that’s bad design, because usability is reduced. Additionally, the feature is not missing. It’s just hidden. Which is a major part in making websites work on devices with tiny screens.
That said, I did not call it “responsive”, because I like it, I just called it that, because it is, according to the industry standard.
Check out any Web App or Web UI or anything on the web built with modern tools. They all do that, if they follow the industry standard.
Try whatever service you like, if they follow the standard, they will start hiding stuff from the page when a certain screen size is undercut.
You can try it out with the browser’s developer tools. Change your virtual screen size inside the browser to an old phone from 2015 or 2012 and see how the web works. Everything is hidden, etc. and even then you still have only little space to see what you should see.
If you still don’t believe, then download the Android App for Mattermost. It’s built natively, not being a web wrapper, and there you have 100% intentionally the sidebar hidden.
In Android, there is even a whole UI design element (Drawer), which implements this feature.
So… it’s not a bug. It’s not unintentional. It’s the standard design in the industry, as of now.
Honestly, I don’t need you to lecture me on what web design is like, I am in the industry myself and I’ve built quite a few “responsive web design” websites myself.
if it’s hidden in a way that I can’t reach it (that was the case) it is missing.
I would have no problem with having to scroll or expand some area in order to get to the feature, I understand that might be a necessity on small screens. But that was not possible. By the way, might I add that I wasn’t even on a phone screen or anything. I simply had set up the window a certain size that fitted naturally on my screen (I am not one to maximize windows).
This was years ago, I don’t even use Mattermost anymore, so I don’t plan to spend more time on this discussion.
