I wonder if it is possible to display subcategories nested in the main dropdown, replicating the categories display with the nested theme component in the sidebar.
I’m cutting noise for our unexperienced users on our instance, and the current behavior is strange to them.
The current category dropdown could list the subcategories nested, and the navigation panel on mobile could be simplified into one line. If I can move the subcategories to the main categories dropdown, I would be able to do it.
I think this idea is certainly worth some exploration.
Maybe I am missing something. How do you exclude the subcategories if there is no separate filter for them?
Let’s take for example Support here on Meta: If I use the dropdown and select Support I get a list with topics in support and the subcategories. I know admins can configure if I get the parent-category-only or parent-and-subcategory view by default, but how do I switch with one dropdown containing all the categories?
Yeah not sure. Perhaps there’s a checkbox if you select a parent category that appears and lets you choose whether to include subcategories or not.
That’s a part of the problem that would need to be explored by whomever starts to dig deeper into the possibilities here as part of this design work.
But I think a designer or something willing to do some deeper design thinking could come up with some options worth considering.
I understand that type of filters works for very specific users but the majority just want to see:
Then I think the search filter could be useful for those who want to proper granular filter.
Or a simple ‘tick’ on every subcategory can be also a good to have for those who wants to read some subcategories on the categories topic listings as well.
Just loud thinking, I think it needs to be proposed/discussed. Thanks for sharing your use-case 